Garden waste permits go on sale for 2020/21
Highland Council garden waste permits are now available to buy for the 2020/21 season.
All existing permit holders will receive a reminder to renew their permit over the next few weeks. The optional fortnightly household collection scheme is also now open to new customers living within the brown bin catchment areas.
The garden waste service was suspended in March because of the Covid-19 emergency. This meant that householders missed three or four collections, depending on their collection day.
To compensate them for these missed collections, the council has extended the 2019/20 permit season by nine weeks – taking it to the end of August 2020.
The 2020/21 garden waste permit season will start on Tuesday, September 1, and will run until August 31, 2021. Householders are being encouraged to order their permits by the start of August to ensure delivery in time for the first collections of the new service year.
All new 2020/21 permits purchased will be valid for use upon receipt. The cost of a garden waste permit for the 2020/21 will be £45 per bin for the year and householders can buy up to three permits per household.
Councillor Allan Henderson, chairman of the communities and place committee, said: “Last year approximately 28,000 garden waste permits were purchased in Highland and I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank householders for their support. An incredible 9000 tonnes of garden waste was collected from customers' brown bins in 2019/20 which was then composted into a soil conditioner for agricultural use or land improvement.”
The chairman of the council’s recovery board, Councillor Alasdair Christie, said: “We recognise that this service is popular and valued by customers. By continuing to use the service residents will be doing their bit for the environment as well as helping the council to reduce costs from landfilling waste, which combined will make a valuable contribution to the council’s journey to recovery.”
Councillor Henderson added: “With many of us of now spending more time our gardens, we have seen an increase in demand from new customers wishing to use the garden waste collection service. New customers may now purchase permits and are advised to visit the council website to check they live in a brown bin collection area.
"The fortnightly collection service is easy and convenient to use and accepts a wide range of garden material including grass cuttings, leaves, hedge clippings, weeds, flower, plants and small branches.”
The council says demand for permits will be high in the weeks immediately prior to the 2020/21 service starting, so householders are encouraged to sign up by August 2 to ensure they receive permits in time for the first collections. Customers can continue to order garden waste permits after August 2 but the local authority cannot guarantee that permits ordered following this date will arrive in time for the first collections of the 2019/20 permit year.
Garden waste permits can be purchased online or by calling the Highland Council service centre on 01349 886660.
The service is optional, and householders are also able to take their garden waste along to their local recycling centre free of charge.
Garden waste collection areas in Caithness are Thurso, Wick, Castletown, Halkirk, Haster, Keiss, Thrumster and Reiss.
