GREEN-fingered residents are reminded that they need to renew their subscription to the garden waste collection service.
The annual charge for this year is £44 for each green bin.
As has been the case for the past two years, garden waste permits are renewed annually on April 1.
Residents who have signed up for reminders will have already received a message to remind them to renew their subscription.
Unfortunately, the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation prevents Stratford District Council from writing to every resident who has subscribed to the service.
Permits have been available for renewal since January and can be renewed online at https://www.stratford.gov.uk/waste-recycling/garden-waste-service.cfm or by calling SDC on 01789 260628.
There is up to a ten day lead in time between purchase and the delivery of the permit and only green bins with the correct permit on will be emptied.
Items that can go in the green bin include grass cuttings, shrub and hedge cuttings, plants, flowers, leaves and prunings, bedding from non-meat eating pets and twigs, branches and small logs.
Subscriptions are open all year and residents can subscribe to the service at any time. However, the cost remains the same regardless of when people subscribe with no pro-rata rate.
Residents who choose not to take part in the scheme have the choice of home composting or taking their garden waste to a household waste recycling centre.
Garden waste collected from households in the district is taken to an In-Vessel Composter treatment site at Ufton, near Southam.
IVCs treat the material and ensure that composting takes place in an enclosed environment, with accurate temperature control and monitoring. The material is turned into compost to be used as a soil conditioner in as little as two weeks. In comparison, this takes around three months using traditional outdoor composting.
The composted material is used for agricultural use and landfill site restoration and is unable to be sold to the public.
