What you can put in your bins

Brown garden waste bin

 What can be recycled in brown bins

  • Grass cuttings
  • Hedge trimmings
  • Twigs and small branches
  • Flowers and plants
  • Weeds 

What should not be put in brown bins

  • Soil
  • Stones
  • Turf and rubble
  • All types of plastic
  • Food waste
  • Animal waste material
  • Ragwort
  • Japanese knotweed 

Why you can't put kitchen waste in your brown bin

We compost your garden waste in large, open-air piles. Because this process is carried out in the open air, we are prohibited by law from including any kitchen waste in our composting process. Kitchen waste includes both raw and cooked food, as well as waste from the preparation of food such as vegetable peelings.  The Animal By-Products Regulations were developed to prevent the possibility of an outbreak of diseases such as Foot and Mouth, and whilst the regulations may appear exceedingly stringent, we have to comply with them.

What to do with your fruit and vegetable peelings 

  • Use the food waste collection service if available
  • If you have a home composting bin or compost heap, you could dispose of your compostable waste using that.
  • If you do not have access to either of the above, then you should put fruit and vegetable peelings in your general waste bin

 

Read more about the garden waste collection service

Read about how garden waste can be contaminated