Garden waste and composting
Garden waste should not be placed in general rubbish or recycling bins or sacks.
Ways you can manage your garden waste:
- Check out our ideas for managing garden waste at home
- Buy and use green sacks for garden waste
- Take green waste for composting at a household recycling centre
Compost at home
Composting at home is the best way to deal with garden waste. It is the most environmentally friendly and carbon neutral option for processing your garden waste. It will:
- Save space in your black bin
- Save you money on green garden sacks or trips to the recycling centre
- Let you produce your own nutrient rich compost for your garden
There are options to suit the scale of your garden or the amount of garden waste you produce.
- You can compost both garden waste and some food waste such as fruit and vegetable peelings
- Specialist compost bins are available for composting other types of food waste
You can purchase compost bins at getcomposting.com.
Find out more about how to get started with composting at RecycleNow, including what you can compost.
Compost at recycling centres
There are composting facilities for garden waste at all our household recycling centres.
Compost purchase at recycling centres
You can buy the soil improver/compost made from garden waste at our household recycling centres. The soil improver costs £2.50 a bag. Payment must be made by card. Cash cannot be accepted at any sites. You will need to pre-book in order to visit the recycling centres.
Garden waste collections - green sacks
If you are unable to compost at home or take your garden waste to a recycling centre, you can purchase Herefordshire Council green sacks to dispose of your garden waste.
Waste put out in green sacks is not composted. It is sent for disposal and used as a fuel to create electricity.
Garden waste must not be placed in your general rubbish or recycling containers or bags.
- We can only collect garden waste if it is placed in Herefordshire Council green waste sacks.
- We collect garden waste sacks fortnightly at the same time as your general rubbish.
- If you are going to put out more than 10 garden waste sacks at a time please call our Customer services team on 01432 260051. Under current circumstances we are prioritising general rubbish collections so cannot guarantee collections of very large numbers of green bags from individual households.
Under the Environmental Protection Act (1990) and schedule 1(4) of the Controlled Waste Regulations (2012) local authorities can charge for the collection of garden waste. We make such a charge through the sale of our green sacks.
Purchase green sacks for garden waste
A roll of five garden waste sacks costs £6.50. These are available for Herefordshire residents only. You can buy online and choose which of the following libraries to collect from: Hereford, Belmont, Colwall, Kington, Ledbury, Leintwardine, Leominster or Ross-on-Wye. Or you can visit one of the outlets listed below to purchase directly.
Order and pay for Herefordshire Council garden waste sacks
Hereford Library is temporarily unavailable as a collection point. After Saturday 12 October the library will close to move to its new location. The new library space at Hereford Town Hall will open on Tuesday 22 October 2024.
You will need to:
- Order and pay for the sacks online
- Select which library you will collect from
- Allow two working days (excluding the day of payment) before going to collect the sacks from your chosen library
- Show your purchase receipt, which we will email to you, when collecting sacks
Buy sacks from an outlet - retail price set by outlet
Buy Herefordshire Council garden waste sacks directly from:
- Bartestree Village Stores
- Bartonsham Stores
- Clehonger Stores
- Eardisley Post Office
- Hampton Park United Reformed Church, Hampton Dene Road, Hereford, HR1 1UJ
- Hereford City Council, Town Hall, St. Owen Street, Hereford, HR1 2PJ
- Kingstone Stores
- Leominster Tourist Office, Corn Square
- Lyonshall Nurseries, Kington, HR5 3LN
- Marden Post Office and Village Stores Marden Hereford, HR1 3EW
- Moreton on Lugg Stores
- Newton Farm Community Association
- Pettifers Hardware, 7 High Street, Bromyard, HR7 4AA
- Philpotts Nursery, Cursneh Road, Leominster, HR6 8DQ
- Premier Shop, 31-33 Kilpeck Avenue, HR2 7DT
- R & A News and Stores, 55 Broad Street, Hereford, HR4 9AB
- St Peters Church, Peterchurch, HR2 0RT
- The Old School Shop, 6 Portland Street, Weobley, HR4 8SB
- The Poston Shop, Poston Mill Park, Golden Valley, Peterchurch, Hereford, HR2 0SF
- Tupsley Community Coffee Shop, Hampton Park United Reform Church, Hereford, HR1 1UJ (Wednesday 10 - 12am)
- Wellington Village Stores
Prices at these outlets may vary from that above and stock is not guaranteed.
Brown bins
Please note that the brown 'Green Waste Club' bin service is a commercial service, not provided by Herefordshire Council.