The Great Green Bag Fiasco

Residents were told the green recycling bags would last up to 10 years. They were withdrawn after less than two, and the Council still can’t say what will happen to them.

Sevenoaks District Council stopped collecting from its green reusable recycling bags on 12 October, when the new wheelie bin service began. A month on, around 49,000 of them are sitting in sheds and front gardens across the district.

By the Council’s own figures, the bags cost around £300,000 to buy and distribute. The last ones were delivered in December 2024, so many households got less than two years’ use out of them. And the promised £200,000-a-year savings weren’t due to start until year two – which most households never finished.

The whole saga has been a fiasco, with Cllr Irene Roy (Con, Otford), who has overseen it, telling a constantly changing story.

What residents were told – and when

• July 2024: the bags will last seven years and save £200,000 a year from year two
• September 2024: they will last 10 years
• June 2025: under the new system, they will be kept for collecting paper and card separately
• October 2025: other uses are being looked at
• December 2025: paper and card will not be collected separately after all
• June 2026: unwanted bags will be recycled through Kent County Council
• October 2026: Kent won’t recycle them, as they are not suitable. The Council will collect them after Christmas, but has not said what it will then do with them

The Council still says the scheme saved money. It puts the net saving at around £225,000. But councillors have repeatedly asked for clear, checkable figures on costs and savings, and the final figure has not yet been published.

The Transparent Bags Are Back!

The Council has now confirmed that homes without room for wheelie bins will be given single-use transparent bags. Again. These are the same bags the Council spent months saying good riddance to, in favour of the big green bags.

Each of those homes gets two rolls of 30 bags a year, and households still waiting for their bins have been told to use transparent bags in the meantime. So how many new transparent bags will this be, and at what cost to taxpayers? The Council hasn’t said.

The bigger question: the missing £1.4 million

In July 2025 the Council approved a £9 million investment in the new collection system. The plan assumed £1.432 million in extra recycling income from Kent County Council.

Separately collected paper and card is one of the most valuable recycling streams. Five months later, the Council dropped plans to collect it separately – without explaining what that means for the income the plan relies on.

What Liberal Democrats are calling for

• A firm date for collecting unwanted green bags, and a clear plan to reuse or recycle them – not landfill or incineration
• Full, verifiable figures on what the bags cost and what they saved
• Figures on how much extra staff time – and cost to taxpayers – it took over two years to shake out and return every green bag, compared with throwing single-use bags into the truck
• An explanation of how the £1.432 million recycling income was calculated, how much depended on separate paper and card, and how any gap will be filled

What to do with your green bag now

• The Council no longer empties green bags. Put recycling in your green-lidded wheelie bin, or transparent bags if your home is still on bag collections
• Don’t use the bag for garden waste, as it won’t be collected
• Keep it until the Council’s collection service starts in early 2027, or reuse it at home
• And keep an eye out for the return of the transparent bags – coming to selected homes near you!

Find out more at sevenoaks.gov.uk/bigwaste