Garden Waste and Composting

Garden Waste And Composting

Kitchen Waste can now go in the Garden Waste Bin

Organic kitchen waste, such as vegetable and fruit peelings and left over food can now be placed in garden waste bins and sent for composting.

Major new technology is now up and running at the composting facility used by HDC to process garden waste, allowing a greater variety of organic waste to be composted into soil improver. This means that all organic kitchen waste can be placed in the garden bins and composted resulting in a further in waste ending up in landfill sites.

Your Green garden waste bin can now be used to collect the following materials:

Organic Kitchen waste includes the following materials:

All food waste from the kitchen - RAW & COOKED
Vegetable & fruit peelings
Dairy products
Meat
Fish
Bones

Garden Waste includes the following materials:

Grass cuttings
Prunings from hedges, shrubs and trees
Trees that will fit into the green bin
Leaves and bark
Untreated wood (i.e. no nails, paint or varnish)
Flowers and weeds
Windfall
Straw and Sawdust
Cold ashes only when mixed with other compostable waste

We collect organic waste from households in the district using wheeled bins

For smaller properties with storage and access issues that do not use wheeled bins, households can request green sacks for the collection of their garden waste.
Garden waste is collected from households every two weeks.
To find out what day your garden waste is collected, please see the link on the right.

Important Information

Please place your garden waste on the edge of your property by 6.30am on the morning of your collection
Please do not place the wrong materials in your garden waste collection as it will not be emptied. For a complete list of what can and cannot go in your garden waste collection, please see the link on the right
Only waste placed inside the wheeled bin will be collected
Please do not place your garden waste in plastic bags inside your wheeled bin. Garden waste should be placed directly inside your wheeled bin or wrapped in newspaper.
Make sure you do not overfill your wheeled bin. If your wheeled bin is too heavy to move it will not be emptied.
All garden waste collected in wheeled bins is taken to a facility in Huntingdonshire where it is put through the composting process. It is made into a good quality soil improver and used on agricultural land.

Home Composting

The District Council also actively promotes home composting.

All vegetable kitchen waste and most garden waste can be broken down into a useful soil conditioner as a substitute for peat. Home composting means that you get the first-hand benefits of recycling to use on your own garden.

The District Council is currently taking part in a county-wide special offer on composters and water butts. Please click on the linked document on the right for more details.