It’s at this time of year, when everything puts on a growth spurt, that the shortcomings of the green wheelie bin collection become very apparent.

Under the old brown bag system, residents could bundle twigs and small branches and these would be taken away by the recycling collectors.

I have just trimmed my buddliea bushes. Instead of quickly tying the resulting branches into a bundle and putting them out with my other green recycling to be picked up, I have had to mess about cutting them up and cramming them into a wheelie bin.

The bin is now chock full and won’t be collected for another week, so my food waste will have to go into the black bag as there is no option available.

East Cambridgeshire District Council said that its aim in implementing wheelie bins was to increase recycling.

However, in terms of green waste, I am now unable to recycle as much as I did before - unless I make an expensive, time consuming and environmentally unfriendly car trip to the council tip.

What I would like to see is a collection service that will pick up bundled twigs and brown bagged garden waste in addition to the contents of the green wheelie bin.

A second wheelie bin doesn’t solve the problem of long twigs and branches, and it still restricts the amount of garden refuse that can be put out so is unsatisfactory.

Come on council, you used to provide a satisfactory green waste service, please reinstate a sensible green waste collection.

MIKE ROSE

Broad Piece

Soham

Via e-mail