East Suffolk Council

Garden waste

Join our garden waste scheme

The garden waste scheme is an annual subscription service, costing £47 per year. Operating all year round, it provides 26 fortnightly collections of domestic garden waste. Additional bin subscriptions are available at the same cost each per year, plus an £11.00 delivery fee if new bins need to be delivered.

In some areas, garden waste is collected on a different day to recycling waste - check your collection day

Renew an existing garden waste subscription or subscribe for the first time

• Garden waste scheme terms and conditions
• Garden waste frequently asked questions
• Find your bin collection day

What you can put in your garden waste bin:

• Grass, leaves and weeds
• Flowers and plants from your garden
• Hedge clippings
• Branches (not more than 6cm thick)
• Prunings and twigs
• Windfall fruit
• Hay/straw (bedding from non-meat eating animals only, such as rabbits
• Vegetable waste from the garden (not kitchen waste)

Please ensure that bin lids are fully closed as we will not collect bins with open lids which are overflowing because they can compromise the safety of our collection crews when lifted. If our crews cannot move the bin safely, they will not collect it. We do not accept waste placed at the side or on top of bin and we will not collect your garden waste if it is contaminated with non-garden waste.

Don't forget that you can also take your garden waste to Suffolk County Council Household Waste Recycling Centres for recycling, free of charge.

Do not put any of the following in your garden waste bin:

• Food or kitchen waste
• Soil
• Cat or dog faeces
• Vacuum dust or fire cinders
• Oil, stones or rubble
• Wood that has been treated or painted
• Plastic flower pots, trays or bags
• Paper/card/carboard
• Shredded paper
• Invasive weeds such as Common Ragwort or Japanese Knotweed

Sack collections

If you currently have a sack collection for general waste and recycling collections and wish to join the garden waste scheme, please contact Customer Services to arrange a subscription.

Home composting

If you find that you have too much garden waste and vegetable waste to fit in your garden waste bin why not try home composting. Home composting is the most environmentally friendly and most cost effective way to deal with your garden and vegetable waste.

Alternatively, you can take garden waste to a Suffolk County Council household waste recycling centre.

What happens to my garden waste?

The waste collected from the Garden Waste bins is delivered to a facility in Lackford which uses energy efficient Windrow composting. Only Garden Waste is delivered to the site and following inspection and removal of contaminants is shredded and placed into long rows (windrows) to compost. After stabilisation, the compost is screened to around 28mm to make a variety of compost products, oversize material is then put through the process again.

This process uses less energy and provides excellent compost and suitable for horticulture, accredited to British Standard PAS: 100 which helps to contribute to the circular economy we all endeavour to strive towards.