Join almost 19,000 residents and recycle your garden waste with the District Council

Posted on: Sunday, June 9, 2024

Newark and Sherwood continues to set new highs for recycling, with almost 19,000 residents signed up for the District Council’s garden recycling service.

Your brown bin can be used to dispose of:

  • grass cuttings
  • hedge trimmings
  • leaves
  • small branches and twigs (up to 10cm in diameter)
  • plants and weeds
  • cut flowers
  • chopped up Christmas trees in January

For £37 per year customers get one brown bin and an all-year-round collection service, which occurs every two weeks between March and November, and monthly from December to February. If you need to order an additional bin you can do so for £37 each.

Any garden waste collected by the service is taken to a composting site at Oxton, where any material that is not compostable is removed, and the remaining garden waste is shredded and put in to very large, long rows where the composting process begins. The process at a composting site is similar to that that takes place in compost bins you may have at home but is actively managed by being regularly turned over to speed up the process. The finished product is a soil conditioner that can be used in agriculture and landscaping.

By recycling your garden waste, you are helping to ensure it is disposed of as responsibly and sustainably as possible, as not only is the waste is repurposed and recycled back into the environment, but fewer greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere as a result of avoiding disposal at a landfill site.

You can sign up for the 2024/25 service on the District Council website: https://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/gardenrecycling/. The service runs from April 1 until March 31. Upon receipt of payment customers will be given a sticker to place on their bin. Only bins with stickers on will be collected. 

Andy Kirk, Business Manager for Environmental Services at Newark and Sherwood District Council said: “Now the warmer weather is finally here, and many people are getting back out into their gardens, I encourage everyone to sign up and not let your garden recycling go to waste.”

“As a District Council we are committed to combating climate change and have a number of projects underway to do just that. Both our garden recycling service and our brand-new kerbside glass recycling service are brilliant examples of how our greening initiatives can benefit both residents and the planet. Not only does it make recycling simpler, but it also means that waste doesn’t go into landfill or for incineration.”

“Recycling correctly plays a huge part in reducing our carbon footprint and I’m delighted that we are continuing to make strides to a more sustainable future.”

The District Council is committed to increasing recycling rates, and work to do so includes the recent rollout of its new kerbside glass recycling scheme.

The decision to implement a kerbside glass recycling service followed a public survey last year which saw almost 93% of 6,315 respondents wanting to see it introduced. Smaller 140 litre wheelie bin were delivered across the district throughout March and April, and residents can now easily recycle glass items such as jars, drinks bottles and perfume bottles from their home. Not only does the new service make recycling more convenient for residents, but it also reduces the amount of glass that is sent to an ERF (Energy Recovery Facility), where glass is incinerated for energy recovery. This is inefficient as glass is an infinitely recyclable material, and the European glass federation (FEVE) estimates that every tonne of recycled glass produces 670 fewer kilograms of carbon dioxide than new glass.

Find out more about the service: https://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/kerbsideglass/