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Garden waste options

Garden waste, such as leaves, grass cuttings and hedge trimmings, are not collected as part of your weekly recycling or waste collections and therefore here are some options you may wish to consider.

Garden waste collection service

You could subscribe to the collection service and have your garden waste collected from the kerb outside your property every two weeks from a brown wheeled bin. The service costs £44.50 per bin per year and you could fill it with grass cuttings, hedge trimmings, leaves, twigs and small branches, plant prunings, weeds and old or used compost.

The garden waste collection service has been introduced to help residents compost their garden waste, instead of burying it in landfill sites where it produces methane (a greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change).

For more information please see the garden waste collection service page.

Home compost bins

An easy way to get rid of most of your garden, and some kitchen waste too, is to put it in a home composter in your garden. Surrey County Council are offering a variety of compost bins, wormeries, water butts and kitchen composters at subsidised rates. To buy a bin, or to dig up more advice on how to turn your table scraps and garden waste into compost, visit Surreys composting page (This link will open in a new window) or call 0844 571 4444. Further details on composting can be found on the home composting page.

If you want to get rid of all organic kitchen waste including vegetable scraps, raw and cooked meat, fish, bones, dairy produce, tea bags, bread and much more, a Green Cone food waste digester will reduce your food waste to water, CO2 and a minimum amount of residue. Further details and the latest offers on buying a Green Cone can be found on the green cone page.

Composting at community recycling centres

If you do not want to compost your garden waste at home you can take it to your local community recycling centre (This link will open in a new window), at either Bond Road in Warlingham or Chaldon Road in Caterham, and put it in the garden waste bins.

The garden waste collected through the community recycling centres will be sent to a number of composting facilities based in Basingstoke, Lightwater and Chichester. The finished compost is used as a soil conditioner for local organic farms or by local landscape gardeners.

Biffa garden waste disposal sacks

We are trying to reduce the use of Biffa's garden waste sacks, as the material collected is sent to landfill. The new garden waste wheeled bin service mentioned above not only composts the materials, but it is better value for money. If your property is eligible to take part in the garden waste service, you won't be able to use Biffa's garden waste sacks.

If we can't offer the garden waste service to your property, or you are physically unable to use a wheeled bin, you could compost your garden waste instead using a home compost bin, or take the waste to the community recycling centres (This link will open in a new window). In some cases you may be able to buy Biffa's garden waste sacks by calling Biffa Waste Services on 01883 712 333. The bags are currently £25.39 for 25 bags.

Flytipping of garden waste

Dumping garden waste in hedgerows and woodlands is classed as flytipping and although it seems like a sensible solution it can actually cause a lot of damage to the environment. It unfortunately provides an ideal environment for wasps, rats and other pests, it can crush delicate wild flowers and introduce garden plants and weeds that may take over the natural environment. Even the most innocent dumping of a few grass clippings encourages others to do the same which can result in household waste also being dumped. Instead of dumping your garden waste you can use the options above to make compost, to join the garden waste collection service or to take it to a Community Recycling Centre (This link will open in a new window).

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