Sheffield garden waste collection charges among highest in country

Gardeners in Sheffield are paying among the highest fees in the country to get their green waste collected, a new study shows.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Sheffield Council charges householders £51.50 a year per household for the service, which is well above the £31 national average and is the highest of any council in Yorkshire and the Humber, where the average annual cost is £23.

Some 100 local authorities out of 368 in the UK which offer kerbside collections of garden waste do so for free, while others charge up to £96 a year, an investigation by BBC Local News partnerships has shown.

Read More
Concern over 'dozens of dog thefts' in Sheffield in last couple of years
Gardeners in Sheffield must pay £51.50 a year for green waste collections (pic: Jingjuan Zhang)Gardeners in Sheffield must pay £51.50 a year for green waste collections (pic: Jingjuan Zhang)
Gardeners in Sheffield must pay £51.50 a year for green waste collections (pic: Jingjuan Zhang)
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Evidence of the vastly differing charges comes amid calls for the service to be provided free nationwide, with critics describing fees as a ‘quiet green-garden tax’.

The Government says regular kerbside collections are the ‘best way’ to increase recycling of garden waste and is considering making all councils in England should provide such a service free of charge from 2023.

Anthony O’Sullivan, managing director of the Gardeners Club, a free online group for gardeners across the country, said: “UK gardeners are increasingly being punished with a quiet green-garden tax which seems to go against every other positive environmental initiative that the UK is trying to promote.”

The Local Government Association, which represents councils across the country, argues that if free collections are made mandatory the Government must pay the full cost of the ‘new burden’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Councillor Martin Tett, environment spokesman for the LGA, said: “It’s only fair that those households which have gardens and generate the waste pay for the service.”

Consultation by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) this year estimated it would cost £229 million over seven years to make garden waste collections free England-wide.

In Sheffield, gardeners pay £51.50 a year for 16 collections taking place fortnightly between spring and autumn, with a slight reduction if they pay for two years at once, and they must stump up £25 for a green bin.

Sheffield Council used to collect garden waste for free but the service is now run by Veolia, which the council said charges to cover the cost of collections, with the council picking up the tab for disposing of collected waste.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Douglas Johnson, Green Party councillor for Sheffield’s City ward, said Sheffield has ‘by far the worst’ recycling rates for compostable material of any major city and the high charge for garden waste collections was probably a factor in this.

He added: “In Sheffield, garden waste collections are a private service run by Veolia, and the cost would be lower if the council were able to run it itself. There’s a fundamental need for a review of the whole waste system in the city to see what’s fit for purpose.”

The highest fees are being charged in the south east, where gardeners pay £44 a year on average, while the biggest price tag is the £96 charged in Harlow, Essex.

Collecting garden waste is not yet a statutory service, with councils free to decide whether to offer collections and how much, if anything to charge.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sheffield residents can take their garden waste for free to any of the city’s five household waste recycling centres.

Garden waste which is collected in Sheffield is processed within South Yorkshire, according to the council’s waste contractor Veolia, and turned into compost for use by commercial landscapers and local authorities.

The Royal Horticultural Society said those gardeners not wishing to pay for collections or take their green waste to the tip can try home composting, which it called ‘incredibly simple’.