What’s in your green bin?

Please be careful to put the right things in the right bins – if in doubt, please leave it out.

Poor teddy! That shouldn't have been put in a green bin!

Currently there is a particular problem with the amount of plastics cropping up in green bins – and if this is spotted at the kerbside, your bin will not be collected.  

If contaminated waste ends up at our composting facility we are charged for it and what’s more, if there is a lot of contamination the facility could tell us to take the whole load to landfill and refuse our loads in future.

So please think about what you are putting in your green bin and take extra care to remove contaminates such as sticky tape and labels from cardboard.

The following can be put in your green bin:

• All food waste – including food scraps, peelings/bones (both raw & cooked), meat, fish, dairy, bread, fruit, vegetables, tea bags, coffee grounds and egg shells.  This can be wrapped in newspaper or put in a Hertsmere caddy liner only – no other compostable bag can be accepted.
• Garden waste – including grass/hedge cuttings, leaves, twigs, small branches (cut up), real Christmas trees (cut up), flowers/dead headings, potted plants (without the pots), woody prunings, weeds, straw/hay (including small animal bedding – anything organic that rots easily).
• Cardboard – including  brown corrugated cardboard (no Sellotape, parcel tape or adhesives), toilet roll/kitchen roll tubes, cereal packets, cardboard egg boxes (with non-compostable labels removed), shredded paper, tissues, paper towels, envelopes (without windows).

Nothing else should go in your green bin including any plastic, carrier bags, polystyrene, laminated, waxed or foil-lined cardboard packaging such as juice cartons or washing powder boxes, treated wood, soil, nappies, fire ash, dead animals, pet poo and any hazardous waste such as garden chemicals or asbestos - or any teddies or toys!

Councillor Jean Heywood, Hertsmere's Environment Portfolio Holder, said: "We are recycling more than ever before which is great news but we all need to take extra care that we don’t contaminate our bins with the wrong things.  Contamination can become a major issue and costs the council money, which in turn costs council tax payers.  

"Our green waste is composted and spread on farmland so it’s really important that only the correct items are put in your green bin – so things like sticky tape should be removed from cardboard boxes please."

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Alternatively email street.scene@hertsmere.gov.uk or call 020 8207 7480.