Easiets/cheapest way to get rid of garden waste?

[Mentalguy2k8]

Clearing out for Mum, there's loads of branches, twigs, grass, flowerpots etc., quite a lot of boot-loads but her local tip only allows local residents to dump there, you need ID and a recent utility bill and it's impractical to take her with me every time, and I don't want this crap sitting in my boot until I get home again (where I can dump it at my local tip).

So it looks like I'll have to pay for a solution, what's cheapest? I really can't believe the price of skips/Hippo bags, there must be a cheaper (legal) way surely?

[John Rumm]

Bonfire?

[ARW]

Fire should get rid of some of it:-). And are the council really unable to allow you to to take rubbish without her sitting in the car?

[Lobster]

+1 - surely if she's 'infirm' or 'ill' just 'very old' she's still entitled to dump stuff without being physically present? But might take some advance notice to distinguish you (ie a bona fide relative) from a tradesman who's been working for her (and who wouldn't be allowed to dump her stuff)?

[Phil L]

Everything that isn't plastic can be composted, IE pile it up in a heap....make it elongated rather than in the pyramid stylee and call it a raised bed, bung a fivers worth of bedding plants in there and away you go. Flowerpots etc can be disposed of in the wheely bin or taken to the dump, likewise any polythene sheeting etc. Any wood, branches etc can be burned, and the ash makes a good soil improver.

[ARW]

And if you wait until no-one is looking you can throw the plastic on the fire.

[Mentalguy2k8]

It says on their site something like "our gate staff may ask you to provide ID and a utility bill to show that you're a local resident". It seems they have staff permanently on the entrance checking permits, etc. I don't know if I can take her ID instead.

[Mentalguy2k8]

How long does composting take? It's mainly tree and bush branches. It seems at some point she had "someone in" to prune all the trees and bushes, and he thoughtfully left everything he cut off, in her garage and anywhere else he could hide them.

Her rear garden is sort-of "triangular" towards the end, there's plenty of space to pile this stuff up (and it's screened by bushes) but is it still going to be all piled up there in 10 years time and not rotted?

[Mentalguy2k8]

Very small timeframe for that, she won't allow it because "it will set the fences alight". The garden is "only" 30 foot wide, you see. I'd have to wait until her Day Centre day and make efficient use of accelerants and clean-ups.

[Bill]

In message , ARW writes

I did that once. I had a foam filled mattress to get rid of and as I was having a fairly major garden bonfire at the time I added it to the pile.

Well, it was a very calm day, lots of sunshine and not a cloud in the sky.

I live a couple of miles from the airship hangers at Cardington, R101 vintage. There was a company that used to run pleasure flights in an airship from there.

The rather large, VERY large, plume of black smoke rose vertically many hundreds of feet, if not thousands, into the air, it didn't waver at all, just went straight up.

The airship was on a flight and decided to come and have a look. It circled my plume 3 or 4 times before wandering off.

So beware, some one is always looking, and probably photographing too!

I didn't get a visit afterwards, but did half expect one!

>

[Mentalguy2k8]

It does kind of follow on from a thread I started a few months ago. She's not allowed to burn these logs and stuff on her open fire indoors (smoke control area), but she's allowed to burn it all in the garden any time she likes. Very odd.

[Andy Burns]

Ours probably has similar wording, but in practice they only want ID for trailers and vans, for cars they just waste time asking what you've got and telling you where to recycle various items that you already know because you've been there 'n' times already.

[Mr Pounder]

Not much help, but our council supply a garden wheelie bin. This in the superior Lancashire.

>

[Mentalguy2k8]

So does this one, it's about 70 quid a year and gets emptied once a fortnight. How big are they, are they the same size as a normal wheelie bin?

[ARW]

Sheffield?

[John Rumm]

A shredder will dramatically reduce the volume of branches and cuttings...

[John Rumm]

Probably depends on the location. Ours is about 2/3rds the size of a normal bin and gets emptied weekly.

[Lobster]

We get one free (or should I say "included" in the council tax - 'there's no such thing as 'free' is a mantra I always try to impress upon my kids) - standard wheelie bin, fortnightly, for anyone in the town with a garden. It just about copes with the amount we generate until it comes to autumn and the vast amount of leaves dropped by all the mature trees hereabouts.... unfortunately garden collections are suspended from early/mid December until early Feb, which usually means that in practice there are only about three leaf collections from when they start falling in earnest. I have this annual battle to get all my leaves into those collections; I reckon by climbing in to the bin and jumping about a bit, I can compress the leaves inside by a factor of at least 10-fold.

Trouble is, as happened last year I once got home from work and found that one of my 'offerings' had been declined. Not a problem I normally have - not sure whether the bin was just too heavy for them to want to push, or whether the contents were so jammed in (possibly aided by frost) that they didn't come out when the bin was up-ended. Anyway, I ended up taping the lid down and taking the whole bloody bin down to the dump in the back of the car. Fun Saturday that was.

[tim......]

Where's Inferior Lancashire?

[tim......]

You're lucky.

most councils saved on this, non-mandatory expense, yonks ago.

tim