Green Waste Collection Pilot (brown bins)

As already mentioned by Robert and Andrew , a green waste collection service is currently being trialled in Lewisham. This was one of the Green Party budget amendments accepted by the Mayor earlier this year. The pilot will run for four months and will cover 5,000 households, who will be offered brown wheelie bins and information leaflets explaining what can go in them. There will also be a number of free compost bins available. The aim of the trial is a) to get residents composting what they can in their garden b) use the brown bins for garden waste they can't easily compost themselves (eg hedge clippings). If this proves to be an effective way to reduce the volume of waste in the black bins and increase the borough's recycling rate (yes, apparently it can count towards the recycling target), then funds permitting, the programme could be rolled out to more homes. At least one street in Ladywell ward, Marsala Road, is taking part in the pilot.

There are a number of issues with introducing a third bin that need to be considered, not least space in people's front gardens/on the pavement, as well as the extra lorries on the roads to collect the waste, but hopefully in the longer-term the black bins can be replaced with smaller bins, as is already happening in parts of the borough. We need to look at ways of dramatically increasing the borough's recycling rate as well as reducing the overall volume of waste produced, and introducing a green waste collection service is one way of doing this. Some residents have apparently complained that they don't like the colour of the new bins - guess you can't please everybody all of the time :)