As the daffodils shoot up to signal the start of spring, gardeners are being reminded to compost or recycle their garden waste.

Garden waste consists of about 30% of the average household bin. It is a waste of resources sending this material to landfill sites instead of recycling or composting it. In landfill, the garden waste rots down without air (anaerobically), creating methane which is one of the greenhouse gasses.

The Ealing Council offers a weekly garden waste collection to the majority of households which have their own garden. Residents can put the following items in their reusable sacks:

- Grass cuttings
- Twigs and hedge trimmings
- Plants and weeds
- Flowers
- Leaves
- Garden prunings.

Composting is another good way of disposing of organic waste, including food waste - leaving residents with fertilizer to use on the garden. Ealing Council, in partnership with Straight Plc, is offering residents reduced prices on compost bins. Telephone 0845 130 60 90 for further details or visit www.ealing.getcomposting.com.

Garden waste can also be disposed of for free at any of the borough’s three Re-use and Recycle Centres. These are located in Acton on Stirling Road, in Southall, Gordon Road and in Greenford, Greenford Road. The centres are open Mon-Sun, 8am–5pm (between 1 April-30 September) and 8am–4pm (between 1 October-31 March).

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for Transport and Environment, said: “There’s nothing like the smell of a freshly mown lawn and you can use grass cuttings to make your own compost. It's easy to compost your garden waste and you by recycling garden waste, you could turn that grass into energy rather than it going needlessly to landfill. Not only will this help to save the environment from damaging gases, it will also save the council money in landfill tax. And remember it’s not just garden waste you can recycle – by recycling as much of your household waste as possible you can help your neighbourhood win a cash boost in our Recycling Rewards competition which concludes this Spring.”

For more information on composting, recycling and Recycling Rewards, look up the council website: www.ealing.gov.uk/recycling