“Lots of good "green" publicity, however, I have been told by a friend that here in Gloucester we now have to pay to have our green garden waste bins emptied! I have received no notification from the council, no headlines to this effect in the media - just slipped in an extra cost once we had all got into good habits! When was anybody going to mention this? When my green bin was full and I was unable to empty it into my fortnightly rubbish collection? Or perhaps the council want us all to adopt an Easter Bunny to eat it all?”

“Alfredo, Cheltenham - If Cheltenham is such "God-awful place" with "crappy pavements & roads" why dont you move? I assume nobody is forcing you to live in such a harsh environment.”

“Recycling is good. My only criticism is that i've been provided with food caddies made from plastic which I do not need and is therefore a waste of natural resources. To date everything my family has been prepared to eat has ended up in their stomachs.”

“here in quedgeley we have had to little food bins for a while now, i think they are great, not only do they make you realise just how much food you do waste but its easy and simple to do, i like the idea of helping towards saving the ozone layer although i do think it is to late really, but if this helps my children, there children and so on then whats wrong with it, there is no charge and we are known as a wasteful country anyway!!!”

“I am back in my natural state
There's no plastic or foil and it's great!
All my waste I discard
In a hole in the yard
And there isn't a bury-by date!”

“Debbie, Cheltenham, why not pose your question to your loacl councillor”

“Alfredo, Cheltenham, so what other method would you use then”

“I am at a loss to understand how the new refuse collection schedules save money.

Previously, the household waste wheelie bin was collected weekly, the green waste bag fortnightly. That was simple. Any food waste I couldn't put on the compost heap went into the green waste bag, or the household wheelie bin, depending what it was. All non-recycleables (not many of those!) went into the household wheelie bin. There were also the paper/can etc collection boxes, but I just take those items to the supermarket collection skips when I go.

Now we have two additional small green kitchen waste bins for weekly collection; the general household wheelie bin to be collected fortnightly; and I would have to pay for a green waste collection (I refuse to do that).

The binmen have been this morning. The kitchen waste went into the normal collection vehicle - according to this article, into a separate section. So, is that vehicle going to come weekly to collect the kitchen waste? If it is, why not continue the normal weekly rubbish collection alongside it?

Paula, Chelt, says she has 3 bins and they are collected by 3 different lorries. I understand someone else phoned Cheltenham BC and asked what to do with the food waste from the green caddy and was told to put it in the normal household waste bin as it all goes to landfill anyway!

Am I missing something here? What is going on? If the same number, or more, collection vehicles are required what is the point? Where, exactly, is the saving? I suspect more could have been saved by axing the job of whoever came up with the plan.”

“*chris, glos* - the EU sets the targets, yes, but the method by which they're met is determined at national and then local level.

*TW, Cheltenham* - this subject is about recycling, so any moaning about it in this topic is valid, regardless of how serious other problems in other areas are.”

“There are people out there with real problems, all we can moan about are food caddies.

I've got one, food goes in there, gets collected, end of.

I wouldn't normally post like this, but come on people, get a grip!”