Sign up to get our latest news and blog posts in your inbox
March 18, 2025 garden recyclinggarden waste
On the 18th March, the world acknowledges an important day…Global Recycling Day! A day dedicated to supporting our planet by recycling and reusing materials to help protect and preserve our environments.
As turf suppliers, we’re passionate about helping our natural world thrive! And with more homeowners, developers and landscapers looking to incorporate eco-friendly gardening practices, we thought we’d share the best ways to recycle and reuse your garden waste. Helping you manage your garden waste in a creative, sustainable and cost-effective way.
Let’s start with the importance of recycling materials found in your garden:
If you’re a landscaper, you can help your clients by suggesting these sustainable gardening ideas to help extend the condition and lifespan of their garden.
Your garden waste bin is allocated to dry, small, lightweight, non-toxic garden debris. These will be collected by your local council and taken to a composting site where they can be broken down into nutritious garden supplements like soil conditioner. Items that can be placed into your garden waste bin include:
Unfortunately, not everything can be broken down into compost or garden supplements, but they can be reused in other ways! Garden items that cannot be added to your garden waste bin include:
For these types of garden waste, you can either reuse them for composting and mulching, or take them to a recycling centre where they’ll be recycled correctly.
Turf, which includes soil and grass, is classified as a different type of garden waste. It has to be handled separately to be recycled or reused effectively. This is why it cannot go into your garden waste bin with other dry, garden materials. By including turf in your garden recycling bin, you can contaminate other garden waste, making it unusable. Play it safe and either compost your turf or take it to a local garden recycling centre.
Most garden waste guidelines follow similar recommendations, but it’s always worth checking your own local authorities’ rules. As turf suppliers for Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, we thought we’d pull out what our customers in these areas can and cannot recycle in their garden waste bin.
Homeowners in Buckinghamshire can contact their local council and sign up for a fortnightly garden waste bin collection service. As of 2025, it costs £59 for the year. You can add fallen fruit, leaves, twigs, grass clippings, hedge trimmings, plants, flowers and non-toxic weeds to your garden waste bin, ensuring it doesn’t weigh over 50kg.
A garden waste bin subscription is a great way to easily dispose of your garden debris in Bedfordshire. Collected fortnightly, you can subscribe to the Bedfordshire council for a yearly collection for £56.10 (as of 2025). You can add dry, small, non-toxic garden waste to your bin, ensuring it doesn’t weigh over 50kg.
For homeowners and landlords in Hertfordshire, you can apply for a garden waste bin anytime. This includes an annual fee of £59, and your garden recycling bin will be collected every two weeks. Are you working on a big landscaping project? You can contact the council to purchase extra garden waste bins if required.
Although you can’t recycle everything via your garden recycling bin, there are many ways to get the most from your garden waste. By reusing the contents of your garden, you can transform your outdoor space, enrich your garden and help do your bit for the planet! Here are some of our favourite creative ways to reuse garden waste:
This is an easy win and can be done all year round. Composting involves combining organic matter such as grass clippings, leaves, moss and plant trimmings into a compost bin. Over time, it decomposes to create a nutrient-rich compost which you can spread around your garden to boost soil fertility, promote healthy plant growth and protect your soil from the elements.
Grasscycling refers to your grass clippings after mowing. Rather than collecting and removing them from your lawn, you can evenly spread them across your turf. As the clippings decompose, they naturally return nutrients back into the soil, encouraging healthy lawn growth.
This is similar to composting but focuses on protecting and enhancing your soil, promoting healthy turf and plant growth. With mulching, you shred leaves and bark into a fine consistency. This can then be spread around the base of plants to help conserve moisture, suppress weeds, and regulate soil temperatures.
This is a fun activity to do with kids! Reuse bigger pieces of garden debris to create habitats, homes and bug hotels for insects and critters. By piling logs and stones you can build shelters for small amphibians, mammals and bugs, encouraging wildlife diversity. Fill any gaps with leaves and plants that insects and animals can munch on.
Embracing recycling and reusing garden waste are easy and significant steps toward sustainable gardening. By following local guidelines and integrating eco-friendly gardening, gardeners, homeowners and landscapers can contribute to environmental conservation while enhancing the beauty and health of their gardens. This Global Recycling Day, let’s commit to making our gardens greener and more sustainable than ever and help futureproof our planet.
Why Buy From Us?
5 Star Reviews
99.6% On-Time Delivery
Open Trade Account