Collection information

The garden waste collection is a paid for subscription service which allows households to dispose of items such as grass cuttings, weeds, and dead plants.

The items need to be placed into the brown garden waste bin for collection.

Garden waste is collected on a fortnightly schedule - check your collection day and schedule

Accepted items

Items put into the brown garden waste bin must loose - no bags or sacks. 

Only put the following items in the brown garden waste bin:

  • dead plants
  • flowers
  • grass cuttings
  • hedge trimmings
  • leaves
  • shrubs
  • small branches and twigs no thicker than 7cm
  • tree prunings
  • weeds (apart from noxious ones)
  • windfall fruit (small quantities only)

If an item is not listed above, please keep it out of the garden waste bin.

Non-accepted items

If a bin contains a non-accepted item, it will not be emptied.

Never put the following items in the brown garden waste bin:

  • animal or human waste
  • ash
  • bags and sacks, including those labelled as compostable
  • branches and twigs thicker than 7cm
  • clothes and textiles
  • coffee grounds
  • compost
  • compostable packaging
  • flowerpots and trays
  • food
  • hardcore and rubble
  • household waste
  • items infected with phytophthora
  • items treated with clopyralid, aminopyralid or picloram herbicides
  • kitchen peelings and waste
  • meat, poultry and fish
  • nappies
  • noxious weeds (e.g. Japanese knotweed, ragwort, giant hogweed, spear thistle, creeping thistle, curled dock, broad-leaved dock, hemlock and horsetail)
  • paper, card and shredded paper
  • pet bedding
  • plastics of any kind, including those labelled as compostable
  • soil
  • stones and gravel
  • tea bags
  • turf
  • wood and timber

What to do with extra garden waste that won't fit into the bin?

You may wish to keep the extra waste safe, and put it into the bin once empty.

Garden waste can also be taken to a Suffolk Recycling Centre

Authorised green council sacks can be purchased from our sack stockists to dispose of extra garden waste. For more information, please visit our authorised council sacks and stockists webpage

If your garden waste bin is often full before collection day, you may wish to apply for an additional garden waste collection service subscription

Please note that any garden waste left by the bin will not be collected.

What happens to the garden waste?

Garden waste is taken to the Material Change Facility in Creeting St Mary to be turned into compost.

The compost can be purchased from a Suffolk Recycling Centre or directly from Material Change

To find out more, please visit the Suffolk Recycles website

Why can't I put food waste into the garden waste bin?

The garden waste is taken to the Material Change Facility in Creeting St Mary to be turned into compost.

This facility uses a 'windrow' composting process.

Windrow composting is used to process garden waste only and is not designed to deal with food waste.