Our garden waste is still collected free, but we don't have a garden waste bin - we're not allowed to keep our bins outside the fronts of the houses, so ours live in the garage. If we had three bins we'd have to lose the freezer.
The Council wont take our waste anymore unless you're disabled. They make a charge of £25 so I think we do quite well. Having said that, if we have any large items to go to the tip, we just get a man with a van, and they're usually around £25 to £30, so not too dissimilar to the Council charges.
Our council sadly doesn't check cats which are killed on the roads for microchips. I wish they all did.