Brown Bin Charge Frozen for 2026 - But It’s Still a Bitter Pill for Some

Good news of sorts for green-fingered Burton residents: the cost of garden waste collection is not going up in 2026. East Staffordshire Borough Council has confirmed that the annual subscription for brown bin collections will stay at £40, with the early bird discount price still in place.

 

That means if you're quick to renew, you’ll pay the same £35 early bird price as last year - no small win in a time when most other bills seem to be heading only one way. But let’s not pop the compostable party poppers just yet.

 

It’s easy to forget that this service was completely free until last year, when the £40 charge was first introduced. So while it’s nice to see no price hike, many residents still see the fee as a bit of a thorn in the rose bed.

 

Council leaders recently considered six pricing options, including raising the cost in line with inflation or matching the countywide average of £42. In the end, they opted to keep things as they are, with 23 fortnightly collections running from 26 January to 11 December 2026. The subscription window opens in December 2025.

 

The current price is proving popular enough, with nearly 27,000 households signing up this year - well over the council’s original forecast. A healthy 73% of those took advantage of the early bird discount.

 

Despite this uptake, the service is still expected to run at a loss. Costs are forecast at £1.1 million, while income will fall short by around £139,000. The only option that would have broken even involved raising the fee and scrapping the early discount - an idea that clearly didn’t win many fans around the cabinet table.

 

Since the introduction of the charge, the amount of garden waste being recycled has dropped to around 63% of what it used to be. Some of that, the council says, may be down to the weather rather than residents turning their backs on their brown bins.

 

There were early concerns that charging for garden waste might lead to more fly-tipping, but thankfully that hasn’t been the case. Incidents involving dumped garden waste have remained steady at just 2%.

 

So, the charge may not be everyone’s cup of compost tea, but at least it’s not getting worse. And with another year of steady pricing ahead, Burton gardeners can keep on trimming, pruning and mulching - for now, at least.