Year-round brown bin collections for green fingered residents

Gardeners across Stoke-on-Trent will have the option to extend their brown bin collections in a new scheme being offered by the city council.

The council currently collects brown bins – free of charge – between April and October, and approximately 11,000 tonnes of garden waste is collected each year, but residents who continue to tend their gardens through the winter months have to take their garden waste to the tip.

Now for a one-off charge of £15 per bin, green-fingered residents can sign up to receive collections from November to the date ‘normal’ collections re-start in April.

Councillor Carl Edwards, cabinet member for Housing and Environment said:  “Around 94,000 households in the city have a brown bin, and whilst it isn’t a statutory service for the council to remove garden waste – we know how much this means to our residents. We have received requests to extend the service to include the winter months, but to do that, we have to make a small charge to cover the costs of collecting and disposing of the waste."

" More than half the council across the country now make a charge for all brown bin collections – we will continue to offer this service at no cost during the summer months.”

Residents signing up to the new service will place a sticker on their bin to identify them as a member of the scheme, and they will then receive collections every two weeks (with the exception of the Christmas break), on the same weekday as their household recycling bin collection.

They can subscribe to the service at any point during the year, but the cost will remain the same, and collections will only be made from residents who currently have a brown bin.

Residents not signing up to the scheme will have their brown bin collection suspended as usual in November, but they can continue to take their garden waste to the either of the tips located in Hanford or Burslem.

 People can sign up to join the scheme at stoke.gov.uk/gardenwaste and make their payment online. The sticker will arrive within 10 days.

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Notes

Brown bin collection is not a statutory service.

The new winter service will run from November – April - with a two-week (one collection) suspension over the Christmas period. 

We do not accept garden waste as side waste alongside the bin.

Residents must attach their subscription sticker to the brown bin in order to guarantee that it will be emptied.

Residents with more than one brown bin will need to pay £15 per bin to extend their collection over the winter period.

Details of waste disposal sites opening hours can be found on our website – stoke.gov.uk/the tip