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Green Waste - Frequently Asked Questions

• Garden and Kitchen Waste Collection Trial

The new Garden and Kitchen Waste Collection Service will collect your garden prunings/trimmings and food waste on alternate weekswith your refuse, and is designed to help you deal with your rubbish in a more positive way.

In support of the Waste Strategy for Bucks, the service is brought to you by a partnership between South Bucks District Council and Bucks County Council and is being funded largely by Central Government.

The new service will be integrated into your refuse collection and builds on the experiences of over 150 other councils in the UK, who are already testing, or have introduced an alternate week collection scheme.

To help you get used to the new arrangements,the following points should provide answers to most of your questions. If you still need help and advice, please email: refuseandrecycling@southbucks.gov.uk  or call us on our helpline number: 01895 837362. If lines are busy please leave a message and we will call you back.  

How will I cope with afortnightly refuse collection?
You will still be getting aweekly collection, it just means thinking about it in a different way:

• In week 1 –GREY collection week
  We’ll collect the partof your rubbish that goes to landfill.
  
• In week 2 –GREEN collection week
  We’ll collect the part of your rubbish that is going to be composted.

On top of that, we’ll collect your waste paper and cardboard every 2 weeks and your glass and cans every 2 weeks as usual. A collection calendar and kitchen caddy liners will be delivered with your new wheelie bins. All bins and boxes will only be collected from your property boundary. This is where your front path or drive meets the road or pavement, and is where your recycling boxes are currently placed for collection.

We won’t be able to collect waste that is not contained inside your bin. By having this sort of collection, you’ll have exactly the same capacity for your rubbish as you have at the moment. We’re just helping you to manage it in a positive way.

I don't produce much or any garden waste; can I have a smaller green bin?
Yes, a smaller 140 litre green wheelie bin is available on request. Also a green 25 litre bin is available for properties that only need to have their kitchen waste collected.

Can I have a bigger, smaller or second black wheelie bin for my rubbish?
A smaller 140 litre bin is available on request and a 360 litre bin is available to families of 5 or more.

Please contact us for further details. We will only be able to empty one bin per household per week and cannot provide extra bins. We will not be able to empty a second bin if you buy one, or pick up extra bags of waste around your bin.

Where can I buy bio-degradable sacks for my kitchen waste caddy?
Biodegradable  caddy liners need to be of a  certain standard to meet the requirements of the composting facility.    

As such we advise you to buy the  caddy liners from one of the small outlets across the District or direct from the Council Offices.

The current outlets are:
Chalfont Home Stores, Market Place, Chalfont St Peter.
Village Home Hardware, The Parade, Bourne End, Bucks.
Londis, Hedgerley Hill, Hedgerley.
Stoke Poges Post Office, Bolds Court, Rogers Lane, Stoke Poges.
The Handyman, 3&4 Pelican House, The Broadway, Farnham Common.

This list will be updated as more local businesses start to stock them.

Currently we are unable to  recommend caddy liners from other outlets  as they may not meet the required standard.  We are unable to collect garden and kitchen waste which is not contained in approved caddy liners.  If in doubt newspaper is the best alternative for wrapping food waste .

What if I have extra garden waste or refuse that won't fit into my bins?
If you leave garden waste in refuse sacks by your green bin or put it into your black bin it will not be collected. Biffa can no longer sell or collect garden waste sacks from 1st January. Extra sacks of refuse left by your bin will not be collected.

If you recycle and compost your rubbish, you shouldn't have any problems with this. You can take extra garden waste or refuse to the County Council's household waste sites in Beaconsfield, Burnham and Langley for free disposal.  Please call 01296 382307 for opening times.

I compost my fruit and vegetable peelings at home, should I continue  to do so?
Yes! Making your own compost is the most environmentally friendly way of dealing with uncooked kitchen waste.
Discounted compost bins are available for as little as £6 including delivery by calling the order hotline on 0845 077 0757. See our website, e-mail us or call us for further information.

Why are we not collecting plastics too?
Because the effects of landfilling biodegradeable elements of household rubbish (garden & food waste, paper and card) are more environmentally damaging, they need to be considered first. A plastic bottle collection service would be expensive to integrate into our current recycling scheme. Please continue to take plastic bottles to your local recycling site, but don't make a special journey to do so.

I am elderly/disabled and cannot take my bins to the property boundary.
If you are currently eligible for a collect and return service (assisted collection) for your recycling boxes you will continue to have this level of service with your wheelie bins or your small green kitchen waste bin.

Please contact us if you do not receive this service but feel that you are eligible.

What will happen if I forget to put out my green or black bin?
You would either have to take your rubbish to your nearest Household  Waste Site (Beaconsfield, Burnham and Langley) or wait until the next appropriate collection day.

What sort of things can I put into my green bin?
How will I deal with smelly food waste?

Please use your green bin for garden and food waste only.

Garden waste:     

Kitchen waste:
All cooked and uncooked food, including:

You will be provided with a kitchen caddy (bucket with a lid) to contain the food waste prior to being deposited into your green bin.

There are a number of ways that you can deal with your food waste:

• You can wrap the food waste in a sheet of newspaper prior to putting it in your green bin
• You can line the kitchen caddy with a sheet of newspaper before use
• You can line the caddy with the caddy liners provided
  
  OR
  
  You can line your kitchen caddy with a plastic bag, but the food waste must be deposited loose into your green bin. If you wrap your food waste in plastic bags, we will not be able to empty your green bin until you have removed them. This is
  because ordinary plastic bags are not acceptable for the composting
  process.
  
• Green and black bin lids must be kept closed flat at all times.

I am worried about having food waste sitting around in my green bin for two weeks?
Is it safe?
Environmental Health Officers have considered this. Initial concerns have been satisfied by the positive responses that they have had from speaking to other councils.

Key messages have come out of their investigations, which we will be following:

• We will ensure that the green wheelie bins have good fitting lids.
• Bin lids must be kept closed flat at all times.
• We advise you to wrap your food waste in newspaper or paper bags during hot spells
• If possible, keep the bin in the shade during hot periods
• If the weather is very hot, you can put your food waste into

whichever bin is being emptied that particular week - although we want to get as much food waste out of the waste stream as possible, in order to compost it - we also understand that from time to time, there may be a need to put it into your black wheelie bin during
the rubbish collection week, and the green bin, during green collection week. If these steps are followed, there should not be a problem.

How will I keep my bins clean?
With good housekeeping, your bins should remain reasonably clean. We advise that you drop an old newspaper into the bottom of the green bin after it has been emptied.

This will help to soak up any liquids and will fall out when the bin is next emptied. You may want to clean your bin with a hose or tip a bucket of soapy water in from time to time, or there are companies that can clean your bin for you.
Please see our website, e-mail or call us for contact details of local companies that
offer this service.

Which bin do I use for disposable nappies?
Nappies should be disposed of in your refuse sacks. Better still, we recommend that you use reusable nappies, which are better for the environment. We can provide you with information on the different styles and where to purchase them. For more information on the Real Nappy Campaign select this link for bucks info website or call the Bucks Real Nappy Initiative on 01296 382539 or email: realnappy@buckscc.gov.uk.

If I already compost and recycle, I will receive a reduced service - can I have a refund on my council tax?
You won't be receiving a reduced service as you will still receive a weekly collection - but one week it will be compostables and the next week it will be waste that cannot be recycled. Therefore we are unable to give you a reduction on your council tax. Of course, you will also still have the fortnightly paper collection and glass and cans collection every 2 weeks.

I don't have time to recycle -You're asking me to do too much.
The service will be easy if you follow our advice. All we are asking you to do is to sort your rubbish into the right container which will take little, if any extra time.

We all have a duty to protect our environment. You will find the scheme easier to manage if you use our recycling collection service or use the recycling sites in the district, with facilities for recycling your paper and cardboard, glass, plastic bottles and cans. Some sites also have bins for textiles, shoes and books.

A full list of recycling sites is on our website, or call us on 01895 837362. Once you are used to putting your rubbish into the right container, it really isn't that difficult and soon becomes second nature.

I don't produce enough food waste to have a wheelie bin or small kitchen waste in / I don't think I have space for a wheelie bin.
We will no longer be able to collect your rubbish in sacks, as the new vehicles we are introducing are adapted for use with wheelie bins. It is not safe for the waste peratives to throw sacks in. You don't have to have a green wheelie bin if you don't want to. If you would prefer to home compost your garden waste and vegetable and fruit  peelings, you can. We can give you details of the latest home composting promotion which will tell you how to buy a discounted compost bin. We can also provide you with advice on how to home compost. However, you will still have a fortnightly refuse collection. Properties that, for example front straight onto the pavement or road and do not have space for a green wheelie or kitchen waste bin will receive biodegradable sacks for
garden and kitchen waste instead.

Please let us know if you feel that you qualify for this service and we will come and visit you. The scheme is all about finding the right option for you. However, at the end of the day, we do need more people to recycle, compost or home compost as much of their rubbish as they can. The advantage of this trial is that it will take all of your food waste, whereas we do not recommend that you home compost your cooked food or meat products.

I live in a block of flats and have a communal refuse bin. How will I be affected?
Until we can see how well the scheme is working, we do not intend to make any changes for householders living in flats who have a communal refuse bin. For now, your collection will remain exactly the same.

I don't believe this trial will work - Why does SBDC have to be different to other councils?
In fact, at the moment there are over 150 other councils doing some sort of alternate week collection scheme in this country and more and more councils will be adopting this type of collection as time goes on.  This is because the Landfill Directive requires that we drastically reduce the amount of biodegradable waste that is buried in the ground at landfill sites.

To get the most rubbish out of landfill, we need to target the heaviest elements first- which are paper and garden and food waste. These are also amongst the most dangerous elements of household rubbish to go to landfill, as when they rot down in a landfill site, they generate methane gas which is an explosive gas that contributes towards global warming. As there are so many councils doing this sort of scheme, we have been able to look at the experiences of all of those councils to find out how such a collection works, what can go wrong, and how we can manage it.
Most councils offering this sort of scheme have a recycling rate of between 30% and 50% as it is making many people recycle for the first time. As South Bucks residents are currently recycling about 23%, it is clear that we need to do more to get householders to recycle.

Have you consulted the public about this scheme?
Yes we have. Surveys were undertaken last year and householders were asked whether they would like to have a green waste collection service at no extra cost. 61% said that yes they would. In addition, 83% of the residents that took part in the trial of this service found it beneficial to have their garden and kitchen
waste collected, and 74% did not find the trial difficult.