Garden waste scheme still way off turning a profit

SEVERAL thousand more householders need to sign up to Dumfries and Galloway Council’s garden waste collection service before it can turn a profit, it has emerged.

When the garden waste collection scheme was introduced a few years ago, it was discussed that it could potentially be a money-spinner for the local authority.

Garden waste collections resulted in 374 tonnes of recyclable waste in 2025/26, and council leader Stephen Thompson has questioned whether or not this meant it had become financially viable.

At a meeting last week, he said: “In terms of the garden waste, I see there’s obviously a big uplift in the sort of tonnage collection.

“Does that equate with the uplift in the number of people subscribing to the service and are we confident that it’ll start generating a surplus rather than just a break-even sort of figure?”

Replying, Alan Mawson, the council’s head of facilities, waste and neighbourhood services, said the service currently has around 6300 subscribers.

Mr Mawson said: “The target for this year was 7500 and the number of 9500 sign-ups is the target that should see us moving away from a break-even and making some form of positive contribution to the organisation.”

The garden waste service was first approved by councillors in June 2024, with householders charged £40 annually to opt in to fortnightly collections between March and November.

Mr Mawson acknowledged this year had been challenging in terms of marketing. The council brought in a specialist digital marketing company to run a campaign, but admitted the timing had not been quite right.

He explained: “We probably went too early with that campaign.

“We’ll look at doing that a bit better closer to when growing season comes in next year.”

The council is also looking at switching from its current annual renewal model to a direct debit system, after research showed retaining customers year on year is proving difficult.