Only a quarter of eligible households have signed up to Hackney’s new garden waste subscription

A waste collection truck makes its way around the borough. Photograph: Hackney Council

Only a quarter of Hackney households with a garden have signed up to the council’s new waste collection subscription.

Two months into the scheme, which sees residents pay for their garden waste to be picked up, residents are still “familiarising” themselves with the new system.

That’s according to Mete Coban, who was speaking as the Town Hall’s environment chief before he quit the council to take up a job at City Hall.

Coban said he suspected there had been an uptick in people attending reuse and recycling centres to dispose of their waste.

But he added: “As we know, not everyone is responsible in their disposal of waste, and we have experienced some dumping of garden waste.”

When dumped garden waste is found, it is taken to the council’s waste transfer station, and “non-contaminated” garden waste is sent for composting.

Repeat offenders of garden waste dumping are being monitored, Coban assured attendees at the council meeting, and said officers will be taking “educational and enforcement action when necessary”.

“We already have dumping of general waste,” Clissold’s Independent Socialist councillor Fliss Premru told the Citizen. “Surely this adds to the problem?”

She continued: “We understand it will take time for a new system to settle in but we’re concerned that the new charge – more expensive here than in neighbouring boroughs – could act as a disincentive for those on a tight income, particularly if the borough isn’t publicising any assistance which might be on offer for them.”

Coban said residents were informed that black bins should not be used for garden waste, but confirmed that any leafy, floral or grassy matter put in black bins was disposed as “general waste” and taken to the “energy-from-waste facility”.

“This means that it will be burned,” Premru responded. “Asking people to not put [garden waste] in black bins does not mean that they won’t.

“There is no pre-sorting facility at the energy-from-waste [facility], which is an ongoing source of concern to many climate activists and residents.

“We have had a number of complaints and are not sure that the savings are worth the adverse effect on our climate action plan.”

Responding to Cllr Premru’s concerns about garden waste collection was the last time Coban spoke at the council before leaving to become London’s deputy mayor for the environment.

Before Premru was given the opportunity to ask a supplementary question, Coban spoke for two minutes about his life story and his journey as a Stoke Newington councillor.

The new garden waste charges previously came in for criticism over a lack of transparency about how they work.