Did you know there is no legal requirement for your local council authority to collect your garden recycling waste?

Having lived in a number of different local authorities (Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Argyll and Bute and East Renfrewshire) I had my brown garden recycling bin collected weekly or fortnightly and thought nothing of it, I presumed it was the norm. I moved home in September of last year and this January  after tidying up my garden of the winter debris I wrote to East Ayrshire Council to ask why the bins wee only being collected 9 months of the year and once a month.

Imaine my shock when they replied to say the bins would not be collected until March, and as of March householders will be required to purchase a garden waste permit if they are looking to continue the garden recycling service. It will be £30 per brown bin for the year. 

I am aware this is not a new concept, but it is a new concept to me. 

East Ayrshire is not the first local authority to introduce this charge and will certainly not be the last. This charge is also not guaranteed to stay at £30 and other authorities who are already using this system have put the charge up in price year after year. 

I am urging you to sign this petition and write to your local councillors and MSPs and ask for it to be made a legal reguirement, that garden recycling is collected along with our house hold recycling before its too late, this becomes the norm and we all accept it, despite the increase in our council taxes year on year, cuts are being made not in favour of the council residents.

Householders Keeping gardens and surrounding areas clean and tidy surely benefits the local authorities and our beautiful country as a whole. This I fear will only encourage fly tipping polluting and disgracing our countryside and streets.

In Scotland we pride ourselves as aiming for a greener ego friendly country. Encouraging people to drive numourous times back and forth to skips to recycle their garden waste laughs in the face of a vision got a greener Scotland. 

People on low incomes, pensioners and the disabled will be the people who will suffer most from this, but in reality we all will, and we must stand against this before every local authority in Scotland has implemented the charge and it is too late. 

Please share and sign this petition, and help change the legislation and insure Scotland and its local authorities have a legal requirement to collect garden waste recycling bins.