Only a quarter of eligible households have signed up to Hackney’s new garden waste subscription
A waste collection truck makes its way around the borough. Photograph: Hackney Council
Only a quarter of Hackney households with a garden have signed up to the council’s new waste collection subscription.
Two months into the scheme, which sees residents pay for their garden waste to be picked up, residents are still “familiarising” themselves with the new system.
That’s according to Mete Coban, who was speaking as the Town Hall’s environment chief before he quit the council to take up a job at City Hall.
Coban said he suspected there had been an uptick in people attending reuse and recycling centres to dispose of their waste.
But he added: “As we know, not everyone is responsible in their disposal of waste, and we have experienced some dumping of garden waste.”
When dumped garden waste is found, it is taken to the council’s waste transfer station, and “non-contaminated” garden waste is sent for composting.
Repeat offenders of garden waste dumping are being monitored, Coban assured attendees at the council meeting, and said officers will be taking “educational and enforcement action when necessary”.
“We already have dumping of general waste,” Clissold’s Independent Socialist councillor Fliss Premru told the Citizen. “Surely this adds to the problem?”
She continued: “We understand it will take time for a new system to settle in but we’re concerned that the new charge – more expensive here than in neighbouring boroughs – could act as a disincentive for those on a tight income, particularly if the borough isn’t publicising any assistance which might be on offer for them.”
Coban said residents were informed that black bins should not be used for garden waste, but confirmed that any leafy, floral or grassy matter put in black bins was disposed as “general waste” and taken to the “energy-from-waste facility”.
“This means that it will be burned,” Premru responded. “Asking people to not put [garden waste] in black bins does not mean that they won’t.
“There is no pre-sorting facility at the energy-from-waste [facility], which is an ongoing source of concern to many climate activists and residents.
“We have had a number of complaints and are not sure that the savings are worth the adverse effect on our climate action plan.”
Responding to Cllr Premru’s concerns about garden waste collection was the last time Coban spoke at the council before leaving to become London’s deputy mayor for the environment.
Before Premru was given the opportunity to ask a supplementary question, Coban spoke for two minutes about his life story and his journey as a Stoke Newington councillor.
The new garden waste charges previously came in for criticism over a lack of transparency about how they work.
Didn't anyone realise that neighbours will share bins to save money? That's great because less bins mean less collection work, therefore saving money for Hackney Council.
Why is it acceptable for the council to keep building LTNs, like the recent one on Amhurst Road, penalize drivers, and then require a subscription to pick up garden waste? This seems to contradict their goal by indirectly promoting car use. Are we supposed to pay the ULEZ and congestion charges to reach a waste facility, sit in traffic emitting more greenhouse gases (as TfL's report shows), and then find out the facility might not even take our waste? It's absurd.
Hackney Council can spend £12,000 on random fruit sculptures in Hackney Central to sit on (as opposed to normal benches) but can't manage to pick up garden waste. And Mr. Coban, also known as "Carbon Coban" due to his frequent recreational trips to Miami and Egypt (effectively emmitting as much Carbon into the atomsphere as 12 cars, combined, in one day), is hardly setting a good example, and Hackney residents, especially ethnic minorities which of Hackney has 50% of, are the only people being damaged in this offer.
We will NOT be lectured by Mr. Coban.
This is, unless, they expect people to be CYCLING with their waste to facilities such as Wood Green to dispose of it themselves.
When this corrupt council make cuts like this to their shoddy services, it is just another way of increasing council tax by the back door. If they keep at it, we will be paying council taxes for no services at all. Their cover story of an ever greener Hackney is just another way to squeeze more money from hard working tax payers. Even if we all stopped driving, pollution doesn't always stay where it is created. Last year many parts of Hackney were covered in sand from the Sahara desert. Tfls survey (if one can believe it) would alter day by day according to what way the wind is blowing. One thing can be certain, more foul winds will be arriving from this inherently corrupt council and we will all be paying more for it.