Ealing Council Says You Need To Pay To Recycle Garden Waste

The above photo shows the current garden waste recycling bags that are used within Ealing. You fill these with your garden waste and each week you put them out with your rubbish, and other recycling, and Ealing council comes along and picks it all up for you. Brilliant! The recycling options in Ealing are great. In fact when I moved here a year ago, I found you could recycle so much that I found it confusing!

• A white bag for plastics
• Orange bags for garden waste
• A small green bin for food scraps
• A larger green storage container for paper and metals
• and then general rubbish if indeed you had any after al of that recycling!

OK so you don't need to have a PhD to manage all of that recycling but it certainly helps! ;-) Below is a picture of my standard recycling ... although admittedly in the height of Summer there are usually more garden waste recycling bags, as the above image shows!

In 2012 however this is all going to change. Well the garden waste recycling will at least. Ealing Council highlights that putting garden waste in landfill is not an option. In the long run this leads to green house gas creation which is clearly not a great thing, and it is a needless impact on landfill sites. It just doesn't make sense to dump reusable garden waste into landfill sites. Besides councils in the UK have recycling targets that they need to meet. Although I am not certain I assume there are financial impacts if these recycling targets are not met? I need to research this some more.

So there simply should not be a barrier to entry for people to recycle as much of their waste as possible. Previously, the only barrier to entry for Ealing residents was the need to have a PhD to understand the options ;-). In April 2012 though this all changes. Ealing council have announced a subscription service for the collection of garden waste. It will cost residents another £40 a year on top of their council tax. This for a service that is currently covered by council tax in Ealing. Residents will be able to get a wheelie bin, or bags, for their garden waste - however collections will only be every 2nd week.

Lets add a barrier to entry to recycling! That'll help residents help the council to meet their recycling targets! This is simply not a good idea in my view. If people see a perceived cost for a service, they are less likely to use it. OK we already pay for the garden waste recycling, but this comes out of our council tax bill now. Now on top of this I have to pay for a service that I already get for free. What's more I pay and its only available every 2nd week as opposed to every week? Crazy.

Ealing prides itself on being a green borough. There are fantastic parklands and fantastic gardens that make Ealing a desirable place to live. Why are people who maintain their gardens going to be penalised for making Ealing an enjoyable place to live? OK this might sound a little extreme, but this is what it equates to. If you are an avid gardener you will have to pay a little more each year to keep your garden tidy. 

Oh and don't try and dispose of your garden waste in your regular rubbish (not that you should). In their FAQ Ealing Council highlight that this is not an option.

I certainly hope this doesn't lead to an increase in fly tipping :-(

Councils should be doing everything in their power to encourage residents to recycle correctly. They should not be charging for the privilege. 

Cheers

Murray