The final collections of garden waste in Leeds will begin next week.
Leeds City Council delivers the largest garden waste collection service by any council in the UK, annually collecting more than 31,000 tonnes of garden waste from 220,000 households in brown bins across the city. The council is also developing plans to expand the service to additional households in the future, helping even more residents to recycle their garden waste.
The service is designed to assist households with gardens and to supplement home composting.
Each year, brown bin collections are paused during the winter months due to the dramatically reduced demand for garden waste disposal, with the service resuming in the following spring.
This year, the last round of collections will start from Monday 16 November with the final scheduled collection day being Saturday 28 November.
All Leeds residents who receive a brown bin garden waste collection can go to https://www.leeds.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/check-your-bin-day to check their final collection date. Reminders can also be sent directly to smartphones by downloading the Leeds Bins app.
Over the winter garden waste can still be taken to any of the eight council-run local household waste recycling centres for free. Sites are open seven days a week, 8am-4pm. Check https://www.leeds.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/recycling-sites for the nearest recycling centre.
All garden waste collected by the council throughout the year is composted locally and used in farming, horticulture and local land restoration projects. However, composting can also be done at home and remains the best solution for the environment. This produces excellent soil conditioner for gardens or house plants, with fallen leaves at this time of the year making perfect mulch or leaf mould. For more information on composting visit https://www.leeds.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/composting.
Households who receive a combined food and garden waste collection in the Wetherby area will continue to have their brown bins emptied throughout winter.
Councillor James Gibson, Leeds City Council’s executive member for environment, said: “As winter is now approaching we will be stopping the garden waste collections from the end of November, so if your household gets a garden waste collection please remember to put the bin out for the final time if it needs emptying.
“If any residents have garden waste to be disposed of while the service is on its break through the winter, it can be taken to any of our household waste recycling centres and disposed of easily there for free.
“For households in the Wetherby area who are part of the comingled food and garden waste collection trial, collections will continue throughout winter.”
ENDS
