Brown bins pile up as £35 fee leads to clean out

Scores of brown bins have been piled up at a recycling centre after thousands of residents refused to sign up to a new paid-for garden waste service.

Midlothian Council introduced the annual £35 charge for collecting garden waste last month. But rows of neglected brown bins have been spotted lined up at the Stobhill Recycling Centre in Newtongrange as the council is forced to dismantle them.

After being rolled out last month, residents in Midlothian have to pay a £35 charge for the fortnightly service. A council spokesperson said: “Most eligible households have either signed up to the service or kept their brown bin and organised their own disposal. A small proportion, around 3,500 households, have asked to return their brown bin.”

0 Some of the bins that have been returned to the Stobhill Recycling Centre in Newtongrange