Garden waste charges subsidise other services

SIR – By focusing on the new charges for garden waste, both Andrew Smith (Letters, July 18) and Peter Cope (Letters, July 22) give a very partial view of our local councils’ new waste-collection arrangements.

In the borough of Tonbridge and Malling, household collections will now include plastics, glass, aerosols, food and drinks cartons fortnightly and food waste weekly. Those living in villages who do not have a car cannot be expected to take plastics and glass by bus to collection points. The new measures should increase the amount of recycling and therefore reduce the general waste sent to landfill.

As the collection of garden waste is the only service for which a charge can be made, it is a sensible way of covering the additional services. Both Mr Smith and Mr Cope are at liberty to compost their own garden waste, as we all used to do before the days of bins. The charge for garden waste is entirely voluntary and, in our borough, is only £32 if one opts in by the end of next week. Rev Christopher Miles

Hadlow, Kent

SIR – Birmingham city council makes an “annual” charge for garden waste collections, although the service only runs from March to September.

It costs £48 if you pay online and £50 if you subscribe over the telephone. Even if you do subscribe, you can never be completely sure that your brown-lidded wheelie bin will be collected on the allotted day, if at all. Michele Platman

Birmingham

SIR – Anyone with a garden should have room to compost their waste and return it to the soil. Why do we need garden-waste collections? Ron Mickleburgh

Killigarth, Cornwall