New garden waste collections began across Sutton borough this week amid worries householders will dump rubbish illegally to avoid combined bills of nearly £1million.

Residents were already unhappy about paying £35 a year for a previously-free service, when it emerged the charge will apply to every green sack carted away.

Bernard Harris, the owner of Nice and Neat Garden Services, said 30 customers referred to him from Age Concern would struggle as they often generated six bags of cuttings.

He expressed concerns that fly-tipping will escalate and huge amounts of green waste will be mobilised unnecessarily. Another fear is that bin bandits may create a black market for the 75-litre hessian sacks.

Anger over the scheme has increased because heads of Sutton Council recently awarded themselves pay rises of up to £10,000 a year, which would have covered waste collections from 11,000 homes.

Mr Harris, 61, from Worcester Park, said: "Everyone I have visited is totally irate. The whole point of green waste collections is to improve recycling.

"But you're just going to get 500 people queueing at the dump on a Saturday while their gas-guzzling cars tick over. Somebody will say sorry the container's full' and they'll drive off somewhere else or just empty the contents anywhere."

Mike King, a keen gardener in Woodend, Sutton, said: "We have found the free bags extremely useful for collecting leaves from council trees. In future, these will be left to block the drains even more.

"We do not believe this new system has been properly thought through and seems like a step backwards for our green borough."

Councillor John Kennedy, Conservative group spokesman for recycling, said the prohibitively high charge would simply dissuade residents from minimising waste.

The collection service is free until the £35 charge comes into effect on June 1. As an alternative, householders can request free composters.

Councillor Colin Hall, the executive member for environment, is convinced the changes will encourage more residents to break down cuttings in gardens.

"The reason behind this is sustainability and trying to deal as much as possible with waste at home. I do understand this is a significant change and is going to be difficult for people," he said.

"But I would like them to work with us because then we won't have punitive landfill fines coming through from the Government.

"We don't want to be running huge lorries around the streets all the time to pick up garden waste, when 50 years ago people put it in their composter."

The estimated £900,000 income from the scheme will fund composting kits, free kerbside glass collections and a textiles service. Drivers will have computers to check the allocations for each home.

For more information or to request a maximum of three bags, call 020 8770 5070.