Garden Waste Service

No. The service will only be available to residents that register for the service. If you do not register and make the payment, your green bin will not be collected and there will be 
no charge to you. Therefore, if you do not have a garden or do not want to pay for the collections, you do not need to do anything

Food waste is collected weekly in your food waste bin. Please do not use the green bin for food waste. Windfall apples and other compostable garden waste can be put in the green bin but please ensure it is not too heavy for collection.

No. 95% of the waste in the grey bin is taken to an energy from waste facility, they cannot accept garden waste at this plant. If there is garden waste in your grey bin, it will not be 
emptied. The collections crews will be monitoring bins for hidden garden waste and a thorough check will be made if evidence shows previous contamination.

No. The recycling in the blue-lidded bin is sorted at a materials recycling facility, they cannot accept garden waste at this plant. If there is garden waste in your blue-lidded bin,
it will not be emptied. The collection crews will be monitoring bins for hidden garden waste and a thorough check will be made if evidence shows previous contamination.

The annual charge is fixed for one year from 1st April to 31st March. The charge must be paid in full and there is no pro-rata rate available.

No. The charge is per green bin and only bins showing the official permits will be emptied, residents can have as many bins as required. If your bin is too heavy, we may not be able to collect it.

The green bin will be replaced in line with the Council's Fees and Charges Schedule and a replacement permit will be supplied.

You can request a replacement sticker. There will be a £5 charge for each replacement and your previous permit will be cancelled. You will be asked to provide evidence of the 
damaged sticker.

When you have paid for your subscription, the details will be sent to our contractor to provide the welcome pack. This can take up to ten working days. If you haven't received it after this time please call us and we will look into the issue.

Yes. This will be a private arrangement between residents. The collection crews will only collect green bins displaying a valid permit from the household at which it is registered.

Yes, with the exception of a two week break over the Christmas and New Year period. There may be occasions due to exceptionally inclement weather etc. when the collections 
will be suspended. Full details will be provided on the Council website if there are any interruptions to the service. No refunds will be given for unexpected disruptions to the 
service.

If a resident moves within the district, their subscription can be transferred to their new address. You will need to contact SDC to arrange for a new permit to be issued. No refunds, in whole or in part, will be issued if a subscribing resident moves outside of the district during the year.

There will be a cooling-off period of 14 days in which you can cancel your subscription as long as you return your permit intact to us. After the cooling-off period, no refunds will be issued.

You are responsible for keeping your green bin secure, to ensure other residents cannot put items into your bin.

We would encourage subscribers to use a green bin, where possible. We can provide a green bin free of charge when you sign up to the service, if you have room to store the bin.
Reusable sacks will be available to purchase where a wheeled bin is not practicable. Do not use the online subscription service if you need to use sacks, you will need to contact us on 01789 260628 to pay for the garden waste service.

The charge is £46 per green bin and is the same whether it is a 240-litre bin or a 140-litre bin. Residents with a smaller 140-litre bin will be able to exchange it for a larger 240-litre 
bin, on request, at no cost, when you subscribe to the service.

The permit will have the address printed on it, so it cannot be used at a different property. The collection crews will also have a full list of properties who have paid the subscription. There will be an admin fee of £5 for all replacement permits, you would need to contact us to arrange this.

Your green bin(s) needs to be on the boundary of the property by 6am on the scheduled collection day. If the collection is missed, we will return to empty the bin in line with our 
current arrangements. In exceptionally inclement weather, the contents of the bin may freeze and it may not be possible to empty the bin. In these cases, we will not return until 
the next scheduled collection day, however, arrangements can be made to collect additional waste on the next collection.

The collection of garden waste is a discretionary service not a statutory service - i.e. one that the Council is not obliged to provide. We had the choice to charge for the service or 
possibly discontinue it completely. We felt that it would be fairer for residents to have the choice to pay for a service or not, rather than not having a service at all. We are not allowed to charge for the collection of domestic waste (i.e. grey bin) under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. There are also limits to how much the council tax can be increased and it was felt it would be fairer to charge only those residents that use the service.

We have conducted benchmarking with other councils where they charge for the collection of garden waste. This has shown that there is not a significant increase in fly tipping when charges are introduced. Any fly tipping that occurs will be dealt with as per our current arrangements. Fly tipping is a crime, any person found guilty of fly tipping will be dealt with, in line with SDC's Local Environmental Quality Enforcement Policy.

The most environmentally friendly way to dispose of your garden waste is by home composting. Warwickshire County Council offer discounted home composting bins on 
their website here. 
You can also take your garden waste to a Household Waste Recycling Centre. Please do not mix food waste with garden waste when taking it to these sites. To find your local centre and opening times please click here. 

No. Due to the administrative burden and the costs involved, this option is not currently available

No, the price is the same for everyone.

You can subscribe to the service at any time throughout the year but the subscription year is fixed from 1st April to 31st March. The charge is £46 per green bin per subscription year, we do not offer a pro-rata rate.

Yes. If you are currently registered for the Assisted Collection Service, then this will still continue as part of the new garden waste service.

Yes. We will still collect a Christmas tree for each property, even if you have not subscribed to the service. Please contact us to make the arrangements.

At present, the residents of the District have achieved very good recycling rates. SDC's current recycling rate of 60% ranks the District as tenth out of around 340 local authorities
in England. This will inevitably fall as a result of the introduction of the new service. SDC is confident, however, that this will recover over a short period time as residents 
increasingly become familiar with what should go in each of the bins. At the moment, up to a third of the waste currently going into residents' grey bins should be in the recyclable (blue-lidded bin). With small changes in the decisions of more residents over what goes into which bins, SDC can at least recover its current position in the league table.
If you have any further questions, please contact us on streetscene@stratford-dc.gov.uk and we will reply as quickly as possible. 

The annual charge is £46 per green bin.
There will be a 10 day lead in time between the application and the delivery of the permit. Only bins with Permits on will be collected, so you may miss the first collection after your subscription

Unfortunately, at the moment a 6-month subscription is not available. 

Yes. All garden waste collections will be fully chargeable from 1st April 2021.