Last week to sign-up for 2017 garden waste early-bird discount offer

Anyone wishing to have their garden waste collected in a clean and convenient way can subscribe to Blackburn with Darwen Council’s 2017 service.

 As an incentive to sign-up early, residents have been offered a discounted rate of £20 – if they register before February 1, 2017.

Already, more than 5,000 people have signed-up to a garden waste collection scheme in Blackburn and Darwen.

The authority has seen a surge in new subscriptions in recent weeks as gardeners prepare for the first collection of the year in March.

As well as helping residents dispose of garden rubbish, the scheme is also beneficial to the environment with all waste collected sent for composting and turned into a soil improver instead of being disposed of in a landfill site.

The Council had to make the difficult decision to either make a nominal charge to cover the cost of collecting garden waste for those that want it or stop providing the collections due to unprecedented budget cuts.

Cllr Jim Smith, Executive Member for Environment, said:

I would like to encourage any residents who are thinking about subscribing but have not yet committed to act quickly to ensure they don’t miss out and benefit from the discount.

If you sign-up to the service after February 1 the price will be £25 per bin. You can dispose of all of your garden waste using this service. The scheme is optional.

Those who subscribe to the scheme will receive a bin identification sticker for each garden waste bin, which will be collected every two weeks from March-December.

The price covers:

• A large brown garden wastebin(s) delivered to you (if you don’t already have one)
• Collection every 2 weeks except during December, January and February. You will be sent a collections calendar when you sign-up.

You can sign up for this service via your MyBwd account or by using the form online at: www.blackburn.gov.uk/Pages/Brown-bins-for-green-waste.aspx

If you do not have internet access you can use the free computers at Blackburn and Darwen town halls or libraries.

Seven items you can put in your brown bin:

• grass cuttings
• hedge clippings
• leaves
• branches
• weeds
• dead plants
• flowers

Please don’t put these items in your brown bin:

• plastic bags
• plant pots
•  stones
•  rubble
•  soil
• household rubbish
• food

For more information about the scheme visit: http://www.blackburn.gov.uk/Pages/Brown-bins-for-green-waste.aspx