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Bins & Waste

Garden Waste Collections

The new garden waste subscription service started on 1 April 2024. If you have not paid for the new service, your garden bin will no longer be collected.

For residents that have subscribed, the day and schedule that your garden waste bin is collected will not change. Please have your bin out ready for collection before 6.30am on the day, as collection times may vary with the implementation of the new service.

Your sticker can take up to 2 weeks to arrive as we need to process your subscription, add you to our systems, and send out your subscription pack (includes your sticker). Once payment is received and you are added to our systems, you will be included on the next scheduled collection round.

Bins & Waste

Food Waste

How do I dispose of my food waste now that it is no longer accepted in the garden bin?

By law, we cannot charge for the collection of food waste. As there is a charge for the new garden waste service, this means we cannot accept food waste as part of these collections.

If the waste is from a vegetable patch or windfall fruit, it is classed as garden waste and you can put it in your garden bin. If the waste comes from your kitchen, it is classed as food waste and you cannot put it in your garden bin.

We are fully committed to continuing to providing residents with advice to help them minimise the amount of food waste they generate. 

To learn more visit Pledge to Fight Food Waste on the Recap website

Approximately 70% of the food waste from UK households that is thrown away is edible. By cutting food waste the average UK household can save £500 each year.

We want to encourage residents to reduce the amount of food waste that they are generating which not only helps the environment but saves you money too.

Love food Hate Waste provides tips to assist householders to reduce their food waste, from how to store your food to make it last longer, portion planning to some great recipes to use up your leftovers.

There will always be some food waste and if you have or are thinking about home composting or a wormery, these are an ideal way to create soil conditioner for your garden.

You can also put food waste in your grey refuse bin. The contents of these bins are treated via a Mechanical Biological Treatment plant (MBT).

Currently 37% of grey bin waste is food waste. We do not expect a significant increase in this percentage  based on the analysis of other councils that charge for garden waste collections.