Garden waste collection

[hdekretser]

I'm missing the Garden Waste collection service at Girton Road. Anyone else?

I've relented and bought the green sacks - £10 for 20. What a con.

Trying to book the bags to be collected by the council is a once tried never again experience. You haven't got the time to hear my story. On top of that I'm told I have to wait for them to be collected for nearly two weeks. And if I want to add more bags in the meantime I have to let them know in advance. (Please don't make me).

I can't see this being particularly encouraging for those who will make an effort but up to a point....

Or is it just me?

[Rachael]

I find it quite easy using the green bags system by booking and buying online. They seem quite busy at the moment (not surprisingly) so collection is a little over a week. They only collect once a week - in my case on Wednesdays. Usually I can book a collection on Sunday via the website and get it done the following Wednesday. At the moment, though, it's the Wednesday after. Not much hardship - I just leave them tucked down the side or behind the fence until they are ready to get them. They will deliver new bags at the same time.

If you tried to book perhaps the day before the allocated collection day for your street, or the day after, with this being the busiest time of year, nearly two weeks seems about right. It's all in the timing!

[hdekretser]

Glad to hear your experience is more positive. I'll need to persevere. And once my pin number arrives in the post I'll be able to do it online so hopefully it will be easier.

But £10 for the bags to pay for the service?

[Rachael]

It seemed expensive to me at first, but you can get a lot in those bags, and if you leave them a week or so, everything compacts down and you can get half as much in again. I pack mine so full I usually have to drag them as they are too heavy to lift!

So, personally, I find it perfectly good value. Would I rather it was included in the regular collections? Yes. But then people who never need green waste collection would be subsidising those that do. The council have dedicated teams collecting the bags and the contents are then turned into compost. None of that comes for free.

It is MUCH easier to manage online. Regular collection days are listed so you can plan ahead, and you can book your collection and new delivery of bags very quickly. It does say they are particular busy at the moment, and if they are not running the satellite collection points anymore, I suspect this department has suffered from cut backs. As I said before, in less busy times of year I can usually arrange collection the same week.

[marymck]

I'm very concerned about what's being put in the garden waste bags. I wonder if all gardeners know that they shouldn't include grass clippings that have had strong weedkillers applied. If Lewisham are recycling garden waste for compost, they could be causing problems. I can't see any notice on Lewisham's website not to do this. Grass clippings from lawns that have had weedkillers applied should not go on the compost heap, nor should they go for recycling, nor should they be used as a mulch. They can and do cause problems and have even been found in commercial peat free composts, where they may have been introduced by councils selling recycled contaminated garden waste.

If you use weedkiller on your lawn, please don't recycle the clippings.

[chrisj1948]

It is a great shame that the Girton Road green waste disposal point is not operating this year. I always found it very handy. After driving about 20 bags to Landmann Way (supposedly in SE4, but it felt more like Suffolk) earlier this week I was really missing it.

Regards
Chris

[Rachael]

It is a great shame that the Girton Road green waste disposal point is not operating this year. I always found it very handy. After driving about 20 bags to Landmann Way (supposedly in SE4, but it felt more like Suffolk) earlier this week I was really missing it.

Regards
Chris

Not having to drive to New Cross seems worth £20 of anyone's money to me!

[The Clown]

Where can you buy the bags these days? They used to sell them at the libary.

[JulietP]

They still do. I get mine from forest hill library.

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[Hissing Syd]

I'm extremely annoyed and disappointed by this.

Aside from anything else it seems indicative of a prevailing governmental attitude that people can find "extra" money for things. "You don't need to be able to dispose of garden waste for free - they can pay us to collect it or take it to the tip." Yet a lot of people, myself included, simply do not have a budget that has room for manoeuvring. I take pride in living well on a very low income, but the flipside of that is that I live pretty much hand to mouth and an extra ten pound to buy sacks would have to come out of the next week's food budget.

Similarly, this last winter I suffered horrendous problems with mice but there was no way on earth I could produce an extra £88 to pay the Council to deal with it.

I don't drive, either, so unless I can persuade a friend to do me a kindness and drive me to the tip I am now stuck with a large pile of garden waste. Perhaps I could dump it somewhere under cover of darkness. Where are the Council offices exactly?

[hairybuddha]

Syd - Try the junction of Sydenham Rd and Kent House Rd. That seems to be our new municipal dumping ground.

[Tim Lund]

I'm very concerned about what's being put in the garden waste bags. I wonder if all gardeners know that they shouldn't include grass clippings that have had strong weedkillers applied. If Lewisham are recycling garden waste for compost, they could be causing problems. I can't see any notice on Lewisham's website not to do this. Grass clippings from lawns that have had weedkillers applied should not go on the compost heap, nor should they go for recycling, nor should they be used as a mulch. They can and do cause problems and have even been found in commercial peat free composts, where they may have been introduced by councils selling recycled contaminated garden waste.

If you use weedkiller on your lawn, please don't recycle the clippings.

This is a bit of an exaggeration. What the Royal Horticultural Society says on the matter is:

The damage is caused by hormone-type weedkillers, approved for use on grassland to kill broad-leaved weeds. The active ingredient responsible for most of the damage is aminopyralid. Clopyralid, found in certain lawn weedkillers as well as agricultural products can also give similar results.

So - plenty of weedkillers which don't cause problems. On another RHS page (which has a listing of all the types and brands anyone is likely to be using, we read, a propos these hormone type weedkillers

Avoid using lawn herbicides on newly-turfed or seeded lawns and do not use the first lawn clippings after application on the compost heap. Products containing clopyralid can be especially persistent. Again, the first clippings should not be composted and the next three mowings should be used as a mulch only after composting for at least 9 months

So, actually such compost will generally be safe, at least as mulch, but, to be on the safe side, it probably is a bit anti-social to send the council lawn mowing for the 9 months after use if you happen to have used this sort of compost.

[Hissing Syd]

Syd - Try the junction of Sydenham Rd and Kent House Rd. That seems to be our new municipal dumping ground.

Alas, I fear if I did, Sydenham Beds would mark it up and by the next day they'd be flogging it out front as shabby chic mattress filler at an exorbitant price, along with all their other treasure - knackered filing cabinets, old parrot's cages etc... I wonder they don't get a horse and cart and have done with it.

[marymck]

My blood pressure and I thank you Tim for changing the "this is almost total rubbish" of your earlier version to "this is a bit of an exaggeration".



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[alywin]

I'm missing the Garden Waste collection service at Girton Road. Anyone else?

This is the Lewisham end, presumably? I'm missing Bromley's former one at Beckenham Junction, which at least meant that I could take the bag most of the way on the train.

BTW, Bromley offer an elective green-waste service: you get a wheelybin and X collections per year, can't remember the precise amounts, as it was so OTT for my current needs that I didn't bother. I presume they're still doing the sticky labels which you stick on bin bags to get them collected, too. What really annoys me, though, is that until fairly recently you were allowed to put a reasonable amount of weeds and hedge clippings in the kitchen waste bin (it's all being composted, after all), but they've stopped that. It makes it really difficult to get rid of smallish amounts of garden waste when you don't have a car.

[Rachael]

At least you have a kitchen waste collection, as do our neighbours in Southwark. Lewisham? Not so much.

I've had a look at the Lewisham website and here's why:
https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/ ... s.aspx#Q11

It reminds me that everything with recycling is swings and roundabouts and what seems obvious to us as consumers is not always correct.

Back to garden waste collection - it seems to me that people with a small amount of garden waste would benefit from being able to buy just one bag - Lewisham will collect just one bag, so why not?

In the meantime, if I am putting my bags out and there is room in them for a bit more, I'll post here and anyone local is welcome to add their garden waste to mine.

[Tim Lund]

My blood pressure and I thank you Tim for changing the "this is almost total rubbish" of your earlier version to "this is a bit of an exaggeration".



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Sorry Mary - I misread what you wrote, so edited my initial response appropriately. Life rule - if you realise you're in the wrong, admit it ASAP.

[Chris Best]

In answer to the point raised about the cut to the Green waste collection here is a Strategic Financial Review considered at Mayor and Cabinet this week http://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/ ... t.pdf?T=10. With a further £15m in savings required in 2014/15 followed by savings of around £20m p.a. in each year from 2015/16 to 2017/18 we are set for more drastic cuts than the visible Green waste.

[Rachael]

Chris - have you read the other comments here, about the difficulties people have disposing of garden waste? If the satellite services had to go, are there alternatives for people on a limited income or without transport? I'm thinking of small scale interventions like allowing the bags to be sold in singles rather than rolls of ten.

[marymck]

I'd like to see the recycling centre let vans in. And a little less rudeness from the staff to those residents who own a small van. My husband and I can't dispose of so much as a kettle there. If vans were allowed in, not only would ordinary Lewisham council tax payers like us be allowed to use it, but it would stop a lot of others from fly tipping. If we can't take our van to the site, we ought to get the bags for free, because at the moment we're paying for the site but not allowed to use it. Or better still, just include this service as part of the council tax. It's a red flag to a bull now. No one notices these charges when they're part of our council tax, but it adds insult to injury to pay your council tax only to have to pay extra for basic necessities.

Chris, I'm afraid I can't get your link to work. Does Lewisham sell on our garden waste for compost. If so, please can to post a link to the financial breakdown/ balance sheet for this please?

Thanks.

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