The Warwickshire Waste Partnership is looking to reduce the overall amount of waste collected and to encourage residents to move waste up the "waste hierarchy". This means that we will prioritise waste reduction, then reusing waste, and then recycling whatever waste cannot be eliminated or reused.

Home composting is the best way to deal with garden waste and, where appropriate, food waste. We hope that the opt-in garden waste collection service will encourage residents to home compost as well as or instead of subscribing. However, for residents who cannot compost or who produce a large amount of garden waste the garden waste collection service provides a low-cost way to have their garden waste collected regularly by a trusted service provider.

Waste composition data from the Warwickshire Waste Partnership shows that, since the garden waste collection service was introduced, the total amount of waste produced by residents in Rugby has reduced faster than anywhere else in the county. The amount of waste that residents put into the wrong waste collection bin remains very low.

Alternatives

If you don't want to sign-up to the service you could:

• cut your grass without the grass collection box attached or use a mulch mower.
• compost your garden waste
• take your garden waste to the county council's household waste recycling centres (tips).

We will not empty black bins that contain garden waste.