The logic behind Watford Borough Council’s decision to charge for green waste collection is hard to understand.

If it is to save money, then the cost of paying office staff to administer this scheme will surely outweigh any savings. There will be a need for extra staff time to be spent on collecting the payments, issuing permits, assessing whether individuals qualify for the concessionary rate, and reassessing every time people’s income-based benefits change.

In fact, the new scheme will cost more because the new brown food waste bins are to be collected weekly, not fortnightly like the present green waste collection.

Not every resident has time or space to compost their green waste in their own gardens or spare money to pay the new collection charge.

What will residents do with their green waste if they don’t want to pay for collection? Possibly, they will put it in their car and drive it to a recycling centre. This will generate hundreds of extra car journeys instead of one fortnightly lorry trip. This does not sound very green to me.

Linden Sharpe

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