Sign up now to get maximum number of garden waste collections

Residents’ brown bins will start being emptied from Tuesday 23rd April and collections will continue until November.

The annual charge for the service is £35 and only households that subscribe will have their brown bins emptied.

Residents will only get all eight scheduled monthly collections between April and November if they sign up seven days or more before their first collection is due. Whilst they will be able to subscribe after this time, the later they leave it the fewer collections they will receive and the charge will still be £35.

Kieran Bostock, the Council’s Assistant Director – Neighbourhood Services, said: “We would like to thank the thousands of people who have already signed up to have their brown bin emptied – the response has been tremendous. However, I’m sure there are still others who have yet to subscribe and my message to them would be: “don’t delay if you want to receive the maximum benefit of the scheme”.”

Residents can subscribe at www.hartlepool.gov.uk/garden-waste-collections

When residents subscribe, they receive a unique sticker for their bin which confirms they have paid. The sticker must be easily visible on a bin for it to be emptied.

Once they have subscribed, they can check their individual collection dates at www.hartlepool.gov.uk/findmybinday

The Council says that charging for the service - as many other local authorities do - is fair as it will only be used by those households that choose to subscribe – and not all properties in Hartlepool are suitable for garden waste collections. The charge of £35 equates to £4.38 per collection which still represents value for money compared to other disposal methods. Income generated by the charge helps to reduce the cost of running the service.

Whilst the annual cost of one subscription is £35, residents may choose to take out up to three additional subscriptions, at a cost of £22 per subscription. Extra one-off charges are levied for the provision of additional bins alongside the subscription charge.

Last year, around 12,500 households across the Borough of Hartlepool signed up to the service and, as a result, more than 2,000 tonnes of garden waste was collected. This was sent for composting at a local facility, ensuring it was disposed of sustainably and responsibly.