Friday 1 April 2005

Garden Waste Recycling Service

Rushmoor Council has launched a new garden waste recycling service, offering residents the chance to get their garden waste collected from their homes.

From Monday April 4, residents will be able to put their garden waste out for collection every fortnight in large, reusable polypropylene sacks.

At the same time, the Council will stop collecting garden waste from household wheelie bins.

The new service is part of a package of ways to help residents to recycle their garden waste.

At the moment, every household in Rushmoor produces enough waste to fill 48 green wheeled bins a year and although 29 of these bins could be recycled, only eight are.

Recycling garden waste helps to cut down on the amount of rubbish going to landfill sites and to reduce the damage caused to the environment by greenhouse gases created by waste disposal.

It also makes best use of a valuable natural resource that can be easily composted and in turn, helps to reduce the need to use fertilisers and peat.

The garden waste collection scheme offers householders two reusable, hard-wearing bags and 25 fortnightly collections for £18 a year. They can also buy extra bags for £6 each and one-off plastic sacks for £5 for five. Residents can opt into the scheme at any time. There are discounts for people on low income and those with disabilities.

The waste will be collected every fortnight in a specially adapted recycling lorry and taken to the Project Integra site near Basingstoke to be turned into the quality soil conditioner, Pro Grow. This is so high in quality that it is used by Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and the Eden Project. It is also sold at the recycling centres.

For those who do not want to join the scheme, the Council offers discounted home compost bins so that residents can compost their garden waste at home. People can also take their garden waste free-of-charge to the Household Waste Recycling Centres at Eelmoor Road, Farnborough and Ivy Road, Aldershot seven days a week.

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