Garden Waste Collection Service

No. Green bins are now for garden waste only.

Food and garden waste are no longer processed together. Food waste will be taken to a special processing facility, where it will be used to create energy for local homes and fertiliser for local farmland.

Garden waste will be sent separately for open windrow composting. This is a different process to the previous mixed food/garden composting and it is vital that residents no longer put food waste into their green garden waste bins to avoid the risk of contamination, and the spread of diseases which are a much greater risk if food waste makes its way into the mix.

Food waste will not be accepted in your green garden waste bin and any bins found containing food waste will not be emptied.

You can start using your silver food waste bin - collections start from 7 April 2025. If you are a property that won't be receiving a silver food bin until later in the year you can use your black refuse bin.

It is an opt-in service to have garden waste collected fortnightly from your green bin. The service started in April 2024 and was free for the first year. From April 2025 there is a £50 charge.

Unlike household waste and recycling there's no legal requirement to collect garden waste and councils can charge for collections. The income from charging for garden waste collections will make the service self-financing. Well over half of all councils in England charge for this service and have done for many years. Not all properties in Hertsmere require a garden waste collection service as they do not have a garden. Introducing a charge means that only households that choose to use the service will pay. This is similar to bulky waste collections where only households requesting the service have to pay.

Yes. Eight out of the ten councils in Hertfordshire also run a garden waste collection service, including two of the highest performing authorities in the UK; St Albans District and City Council and Three Rivers District Council.

No. Garden waste is a non-statutory service so the money Street Scene Services receives from council tax payments is not used to pay for the current garden waste service.

The subscription cost for collections from April 2025 is £50 for the first green bin. There will be a concessionary rate of £35 for those claiming Council Tax support. Additional bin subscriptions are £60 each with a maximum of three green bins collected per property. Additional bins to purchase are £44 per bin.

Once you have signed up to the service you will receive an acknowledgment email and then a letter through the post that contains your subscription sticker. You should follow the instructions and put this on your bin as soon as you receive it. If you are signed up to the service you will automatically receive a renewal reminder each year before the new year's subscription is due.

Stickers can take up to 10 days to arrive. If it has been longer than 10 days and you still haven't received your sticker please

contact us.

Yes, you can sign up at any time, but the cost will remain the same throughout the year regardless of when you sign up.

Yes. You can sign up to receive a collection of up to three green bins in total. Additional bins to purchase are £44 each and subject to a £60 subscription charge.

The garden waste service will run throughout the year except for two weeks (one collection) over the Christmas/New Year period.

You will receive a new pink sticker through the post which must be placed on your bin to identify it as part of the new year's service (1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). You should put this on your bin as soon as you receive it. The sticker should be displayed on the back of your bin underneath the handles and the bin should be presented for collection with the handles and sticker facing out toward the road, so the sticker is clearly visible to the collection crew. Clearly numbering your bin(s) will help to ensure that the crew can easily identify it for collection.

You should store your bin within your property boundary until collection day in the same way that you would with your other bins.

Yes, if you already have an assisted collection for your green bin this will continue.

If you decide not to sign up to the Garden Waste Collection Service, you do not need to contact us to tell us. You are free to keep your bin and use it for storage but if you would like us to remove it please

contact us

to arrange.

There is always the option to compost garden waste at home. We have partnered with Get Composting to offer compost bins at a subsidised rate. Please visit www.getcomposting.com or for more information on how to get started see Home Composting.

You can also take your garden waste to your local Recycling Centre. Please note this is for garden waste only.

We strongly discourage residents from placing garden waste in the black bin as there are alternative, more environmentally friendly ways to dispose of it.

You can compost garden waste at home. We have partnered with Get Composting to offer compost bins at a subsidised rate. Please visit www.getcomposting.com or for more information on how to get started see Home Composting.

You can also take your garden waste to your local Recycling Centre. Additional side waste and overfilled bins will not be collected.

If you live in a flat but you have your own garden you can still opt into the service. If you have communal gardens you should contact your managing agent or housing association

,

as they will be responsible for the removal of garden waste.

You can share a green garden waste bin with your neighbour as an informal arrangement, but we can only deal with one account holder.

Garden waste including:

✓ Grass cuttings ✓ Hedge clippings

✓ Small tree prunings, branches/twigs and bark ✓ Flowers

✓ Tree branches (up to 6 inches in diameter),

✓ Plants with excess soil removed ✓ Leaves

✓ Moss, weeds (excluding controlled weeds such as Japanese Knotweed)

✓ Real Christmas trees without decorations or a pot.

X Food waste is no longer accepted in the green bin. Please put it in your silver food waste bin from 7 April 2025 or if you don't yet have a food waste bin it can go in your black refuse bin.

You can email customer.services@hertsmere.gov.uk with your name, address and your request. As per the Garden Waste Terms and Conditions PDF 1.98mb any cancellations need to be within 14 days of payment.

If you move house the service will continue at your old address and the new owners can decide upon renewal if they wish to carry on with the service. If you move house within Hertsmere and would like to continue using the garden waste service you will need to purchase a new subscription.

Their green bin will not be collected. Only bins with a relevant subscription sticker on will be emptied.

The sticker has your address and an individual reference number on it so can’t be used by anyone else. Check your neighbour's bins in case they have brought it in by mistake. If it doesn’t turn up, please contact us to arrange for a replacement sticker to be sent out. This will be different in design to the original sticker, so our crew know to only empty the bin with this new sticker on.

No, this service is non-refundable. Please check that your bin was out on the correct day/week, on the boundary on time and didn't contain anything it shouldn’t. If all of these apply then please contact us within 48 hours of your collection or fill in our online Missed collections report form within 48 hours of your scheduled collection and we will return to collect it.