Coronavirus in Edinburgh: Liberton gardener offers £3.50 brown bin collections

Service to replace suspended city council pick-ups

Josh with his brown bin collection truck

A YOUNG entrepreneur is giving Capital gardeners a lockdown lift - by offering to pick-up their brown bin waste.

Liberton-based Josh Dow has stepped in after Edinburgh City Council postponed collections during the coronavirus crisis.

Landscape gardener Josh, who runs JDS Gardening, has even hired a 3.5 tonne truck to offer the service.

“We have set up this service and have a specific website page - our collections are £3.50 every two weeks,” said Josh, 22.

“We see it as doing our bit for the community during this crisis.”The Evening News reported in 2018 how then teenager and British Champion gardener Josh was preparing to head to Russia to compete in the World Championships.

He was named in the six-strong provisional team for the finals after impressing judges at the UK finals.

Josh is the second city gardener to offer the service after council chiefs mothballed collections.

Landscaper Colin Spence has been inundated with calls after setting up a garden waste pick-up service to help Edinburgh residents who have no way of disposing of their garden waste.

Mr Spence, owner of C S Gardening and Landscaping, set up the service last week in the wake of the council announcement.

City chiefs have also shut their recycling centres, leaving Capital residents left with no way of disposing of garden waste other than composting.

Mr Spence said the demand for his services had skyrocketed after he published a post on Facebook offering to pick up the rubbish for £4 a bin.

Brown bin pick-ups were suspended earlier this month to protect essential services and the health of frontline workers and residents.

The numbers of loaders per truck has been cut so they can stay two metres apart - meaning more binmen and lorries are needed to focus on collecting general waste, food recycling and dry mixed recycling.

Council Leader Adam McVey said: “We’re working extremely hard to continue providing essential services to people living here, and our waste collection crews are doing a fantastic job.”