Price increase as new garden waste permits go on sale – demand will be high, say council

Highland Council Garden Waste Permits are now available to purchase for the 2022/23 season with a three per cent increase made.

All existing permit holders will receive a reminder to renew their permit over the next few weeks. The optional fortnightly household collection service is also open to new customers living within the Garden Waste Collection Service catchment areas.

The cost of a garden waste permit for the next permit season 2022/2023 will be £47.75, representing a three per cent (£1.40) increase from last year.

The new permit season starts on Thursday, September 1 and runs to August 31, 2023, with a winter break in the months of December, January and February. Demand for permits will be high in the weeks immediately prior to the 2022/23 service commencing in September; therefore, householders are encouraged to sign-up by August 1 to ensure they receive permits in time for the first collections. Customers can continue to order garden waste permits after the 1st of August; however, the council cannot guarantee that permits ordered following this date will arrive in time for the first collections of the 2022/23 permit year

Councillor Graham MacKenzie, chair of the Communities and Place Committee said: “It is encouraging that year on year residents in the Highlands are recycling more and more garden waste. Last year we recycled 13,000 tonnes of garden waste collected from the kerbside and Household Waste Recycling Centres”.

He added: “With the council being under significant financial pressure I am really pleased to see this service helping to reduce costs involved in sending waste to landfill and contributing to minimising environmental impact.”

A frequent question that is asked of the Waste Service is “where does the garden waste go, what happens to it?”. The answer is that all garden waste collected at the kerbside and at the Household Waste Recycling Centres goes to our contractor, Keenans in Aberdeenshire. Here it is composted in an open-air method known as “windrows”, which are long and high piles of material that is composted under specific conditions to produce compost that is BSI PAS100 accredited. This accreditation means the compost produced can be used for improving soil conditions in agricultural farming and reducing the amount of fertilisers that are required.

Customers are advised to visit our website www.highland.gov.uk/gardenwaste to check they live in a Garden Waste Collection Service area.

Garden waste permits can be purchased on-line at www.highland.gov.uk/gardenwaste; or by calling the Highland Council’s 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.

For more information, please visit www.highland.gov.uk/gardenwaste, e-mail recycle@highland.gov.uk or call 01349 886660.

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