A WAR veteran has been left shaken to the core over a ban on recycling windfall apples from his garden.

Peter Jinks was furious when the council waste management workers refused to empty his garden waste bin because there was fruit in 
it.

And many of his neighbours in The Beeches in Lydiard Millicent are in the same boat as there are fruit trees all down the street.

The 96-year-old has been putting the fruit in this bin since the doorstep scheme launched 10 years ago – he pays a fee of £48 for the service. 

Peter said: “Everybody puts their apples in the green bin for garden recycling waste.

“Any gardener would be left baffled if they were told different.
“I’m extremely annoyed as I had to wait another 10 days. The full bin was left as a monument at the end of my drive.

“If I were to put my apples in the domestic waste bin it will attract unwanted insects.

“It makes no sense as to why they won’t accept it as garden waste.”
He added: “I wonder what Monty Don does with his falling apples?”

Mr Jinks says taking his apples to the dump is not an option for him, although he claims that if you do take them there they tell you to put them in the garden waste container.  

He visited several of his neighbours to find out what they did with their windfalls and discovered they also put them in their green waste 
bins. 

The keen gardener has been waiting for a response from the authority but claims he is yet to receive 
one.

“They think that if they leave it you will get bored and give up,” he said. 
But the authority says residents have always had to use the domestic waste bin for windfall fruit. 

And there is a document on the Wiltshire Council’s website that shows what can and can’t be put in the garden container. 

A Wiltshire Council spokesperson said: “Our garden waste bins can take grass cuttings and cut-back vegetation, which is then composted under controlled conditions in order to meet stringent quality 
standards. 

“Meeting these standards means the composted product is marketable and avoids going to landfill.  

“This long-standing arrangement means that certain items cannot be put in the bins and this information is clearly sent out in all communications to residents and available on our 
website. 

“We have never been able to accept windfall fruit in the garden waste bin. 
“However, people can buy a special discounted food waste system called a Green Johanna to manage food 
waste.”