A GARDEN waste collection scheme could potentially be a money-spinner for Dumfries and Galloway Council.
Councillors agreed on Tuesday to move forward with plans to introduce a garden waste bin collection service – if a bid to the Scottish Government for full £2.33m funding is approved.
This means that householders would be charged £40 annually if they opted-in to the garden waste scheme, with bins being emptied fortnightly between March and November.
Council bosses are expecting to hear the outcome of the funding application in the coming weeks.
However, at the communities committee on Tuesday, the issue of composting the collected waste was discussed, along with the idea of the council earning some money through processing all the garden waste.
The council doesn’t have the facilities to do this at the moment, but Mid Galloway and Wigtown West Councillor David Inglis asked for it to be looked at and for the costs of setting up such a system.
He said: “I know it’s not something that’s going to happen in the short term, but surely that’s the second part of this development?
“If we’re going to collect it, can we compost it? Can we resell it within the region?”
Nith Councillor David Slater said: “If it was recycled, and say it was highly successful, would it be possible we could actually bring in garden waste from other areas and make some money out of that?”
Abbey Councillor Ian Blake, committee chairman, pointed out, however that the council does not have its own composting facilities to do the composting.
And Karen Brownlie, interim head of facilities, waste and neighbourhood services, said officials could look at the complexities and see if it is “a realistic option for the council going forward”.
