Garden waste collections

Somerset Waste PartnershipGarden waste collections

We offer fortnightly garden waste collections to subscribers using pre-paid 180-litre wheeled bins or 90-litre compostable paper sacks. 

Check your garden waste day and dates at My Collection Day on the Somerset Waste Partnership front page.

We issue annual renewal notices for wheeled bins to subscribers, which in 2021 started from 10 May (existing subscriptions were extended in 2020). Refunds cannot be issued for cancelling the service during the year. Ensure you check the terms and conditions, below, before placing an order. Garden waste sacks can be ordered at any time.

We endeavour to collect garden waste fortnightly. There are no garden waste collections in the two weeks after Christmas. Garden waste collections may be suspended during periods of severe weather.

Please leave bins or sacks at the edge of your property by 7am on collection days (collection times can vary) and no earlier than the night before. Bin lids must be closed when put out for collection. Do not to obstruct pavements or roads, and take bins back in as soon as possible after collections.

If your garden waste collection has been missed you can report it online using the My Waste Services menu on the Somerset Waste Partnership front page after 7pm on the due day and within five working days (not including the initial collection day itself).

Prices for wheeled bin subscriptions at £57.20 and for packs of garden waste sacks at £28.30 have been frozen at the 2021/22 levels. Those prices are valid until 31 March 2023.

Garden waste sacks come in packs of 10 and can be ordered online using the My Waste Services menu on the Somerset Waste Partnership front page at any time. For sacks to be collected, you can request a collection using the My Waste Services menu on the Somerset Waste Partnership front page from your property before midday on the day before your scheduled collection day.

Check here for garden waste terms and conditions.

DistrictWheeled BinSacks (10)
Mendip£57.20£28.30
Sedgemoor£57.20£28.30
Somerset West and Taunton£57.20£28.30
South Somerset£57.20£28.30

 

What can be collected - and what cannot

You can recycle the following in your garden waste bin or sack:

  • Flowers, plants, grass cuttings, leaves and hedge trimmings
  • Small branches (less than 15cm or 6 inches in width) and bark
  • Straw or sawdust (if bedding material, then only small quantities from household vegetarian pets, such as rabbits and hamsters, but not from micro-pigs, aviary birds, chickens, pigeons)

Please do not put any of the following out with your garden waste:

  • Plastics, including plastic plant pots and plastic bags
  • Metal, glass, stone, rubble, ceramics, soil, turf, compost or clay flower pots
  • Compostable or biodegradable bags or other containers
  • Food or food waste; vacuum cleaner waste; nappies
  • Cat litter; dog or cat waste; dead animals
  • Bedding materials or waste from micro-pigs, chickens, pigeons, aviary birds
  • Material treated with herbicides containing aminopyralid, clopyralid, picloram or similar persistent chemicals (follow manufacturer’s guidance on disposal of vegetation)
  • Treated wood; material with ash dieback (charala fraxinea)
  • Injurious plants, including common ragwort, broad-leaved dock, curled dock, creeping thistle, spear thistle
  • Plants affected by honey fungus, which should instead be burned
  • Invasive plants, including Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed, Himalayan balsam, rhododendron ponticum, New Zealand pigmyweed

Why we charge, and what we do with all your garden waste

Collection charges are set so they cover the costs of the service. Garden waste is legally classed as household waste for which a collection charge may be made. Charging also gives people an incentive for home composting, the ideal option, or to take it to a recycling site, and – on the “polluter pays” principle – means that only people using the service pay rather than all council tax payers subsidising the service.

Garden waste should not be put out with rubbish for refuse collections, and we do not advise burning garden waste, as this can cause pollution and local nuisance.

Your garden waste goes to one of several composting sites in Somerset, including Dimmer and Walpole, where it is shredded, stacked in long “windrow” piles, and regularly turned allowing swift composting at high temperatures. The process is closely monitored and managed to quality standards.

The end-product is screened and sold as Revive soil conditioner through all recycling sites and in bulk.