WE are now in the middle of summer, and so far it’s been a much better one than last year.

And of course it is also the time of year many of us spend in our gardens – relaxing in them and working on them.

It is the latter I want to touch on today.

Gardening leads to garden waste such as hedge trimmings, weeds and dead flowers.

In this district we don’t collect garden waste for free – instead we encourage home and community composting.

The logic behind this is quite simple – it leads to less waste going to landfill, and reduced CO2 emissions as this waste is recycled into compost close to our homes, rather than having more vehicles carry it long distances. It works pretty well.

The most recent national comparison figures we have are for 2007/8 and they show that, per head of population, we were in the top five per cent out of 394 local authority areas in the country, sending only 332kg per head of population to landfill. But one of the drawbacks of this approach, for those who do not or are not able to compost, is that they get charged for garden waste collection.

They have to buy garden waste sacks from us and these are then thrown in with the normal rubbish.

We are quite open about this but it won’t surprise you that we get quite a few complaints about it.

I was pleased to see that in the results from the Place Survey a couple of weeks ago residents scored this district’s doorstep recycling and waste collection services highly at 77 per cent and 85 per cent respectively – both seven per cent higher than the national average.

But when it comes to collection and treatment, the waste and recycling landscape is constantly evolving.

Aside from performing well on reducing landfill waste we’re also expected to increase our recycling rates, or we will be fined.

Currently, authorities which provide garden waste collection for recycling are able to include these figures in these recycling figures.

Arguably it is easier to hit targets and avoid fines and there certainly seems to be a move among councils to offer an optional, paid for garden waste recycling collection.

This usually comes in the form of a one-off annual fee of around £30 which provides a green waste bin which is emptied weekly.

So even whilst most people seem to be pretty happy with the services we currently offer, having laid out some of the pros and cons, I’m interested to hear what people think on this controversial issue. Is an opt in approach to green waste collection the way forward or do we have it about right?

Do you agree with Chas Fellows? Add your own comments here or write to the usual address.