Residents can sign up for Mansfield District Council’s Garden Waste Collection Service for 2015/16.

Information on how to sign up for the scheme, which starts on 1 April, will be sent to householders with their Council Tax bill in March. If you already subscribe to the service, you should receive an invoice shortly, requesting payment.

Once payment has cleared, they will be sent a sticker, which must be placed on the brown bin. Crews will not empty bins unless they are displaying a current sticker. It can take up to 10 working days for the sticker to arrive once payment has been cleared so residents are urged to register by Friday, 13 March to ensure they receive the service from 1 April 2015.

They will get a brown bin and an all year-round garden waste collection every two weeks from March to November and monthly from December to February. The annual cost of the service is £25.

You can use the bin to recycle:

•grass cuttings
•hedge trimmings
•leaves
•small branches and twigs
•plants and weeds, and
•cut flowers.

If you do not already receive the service, but would like to sign up for 2015/2016, call 01623 463463 or apply online at www.mansfield.gov.uk/gardenwaste

Residents who do not want the service, but still have a brown bin, are asked to call 01623 463463 so we can arrange for the brown bin to be taken away.

Portfolio Holder for the Environment, Councillor Philip Shields, said: “We would encourage everyone to make use of our excellent Garden Waste Collection Service, which enables people to have their garden waste removed from their doorstep without the fuss and mess of going to the tip. This is an all year-round service, which not only saves you time and effort, but reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill and the amount of greenhouse gases produced.”

From April to December last year, 5,792 tonnes of compostable garden waste was collected in Mansfield District.