Use our online form to sign up for the Garden Waste Collection Service.
The service will run from 25 March 2024 to 21 March 2025.
Once you have signed up to the service, your collection dates will be added alongside your black, green-lidded and purple bins dates on the Find my bin day tool.
If you would like to find out your collection dates before signing up, you may request a calendar via the Request my bin day form.
You can opt in to the Garden Waste Collection service part way through the year, however there is no reduction to cost. Please see our breakdown of costs towards the bottom of this page.
Your subscription to the service will end on 22 March 2025 - not 12 months from the date you began your subscription.
We will aim to deliver your sticker (your physical proof of subscription to the service) as soon as possible, usually within the same month.
If you are already a Garden Waste Collection service customer who pays by direct debit - you don't need to do anything! You will be automatically renewed for the 2024/25 service.
You can renew your subscription to the Garden Waste Collection Service and receive your 2024/25 sticker in March. Complete the Garden Waste renew or apply online form.
If you have renewed your Garden Waste Collection service, or have had it automatically renew as a direct debit customer, and need to request an amendment such as purchasing additional garden waste bins, you can do so by completing our request amendments to service online form.
As a discretionary service which residents choose to subscribe to or not, it is essential that the garden waste collection service covers its own costs without the need for subsidy from general taxation. Reviewed periodically to ensure the charge is set at the right level to achieve full cost-recovery, projections on income and expenditure have to be made over a five-year period.
The fee for a first brown bin to be collected over the forthcoming service period is £45, which is a £5 increase on the 2023/24 service year in recognition of increased operational costs.
The cost to have additional bins collected from the same address remains at £8 each. For those who are joining the service and don’t have a bin, or for anyone wanting more bins, the cost to purchase a brown bin is £41.
The charge is carefully calculated to take an aggregated, longer-term view of anticipated customer take-up and increased operating costs – fuel, tyres, vehicle maintenance, staffing costs etc. It is our practice to regularly assess levels of service take-up and cost-recovery, with a further review scheduled next year.
Customers can join the scheme at any time, but the fee for a full year applies. During the 2023/24 garden waste service, 35,526 households applied to have their brown bins containing grass and hedge clippings, twigs, leaves, weeds and flowers taken away; saving themselves the mess, hassle, cost and inconvenience of taking their garden material to a household waste centre or appointing a registered person to remove it for them. Customers can also dispose of their Christmas tree in their brown bin, if chopped up small.
There are many other cost and convenience benefits in engaging with the service, as well as confidence that your garden waste is being handled and disposed of properly without fear of it being fly-tipped and that it is turned into compost through an arrangement managed separately by the County Council.
You can also find details about purchasing discounted compost bins on the GetComposting website.
The process for composting the contents of the brown bin - "open window composting" - takes place in the open, and involves the garden waste being placed in piles and turned by a machine which quickens the composting process.
The main outlet for the compost is agriculture, and the Animal By-products Regulations requires that councils do not mix materials such as vegetable peelings that may have come into contact with meat products.
Yes, so long as it hasn't been brought into the home/kitchen where it could be contaminated by meat products.
You can have up to 4 bins, and additional bins can be purchased by completing the request amendments to service form, or by calling customer services.
The bin is collected fortnightly, but drops to monthly collections during December and January.
The council receives no income from the garden waste it collects. Lincolnshire County Council - the disposal authority for all collection authorities in Lincolnshire - have to make arrangements for the processing of garden waste collected. Part of these arrangements is the letting of contracts with composting companies. Lincolnshire County Council have to pay the composting company in the form of a "gate fee".
Compost bins are available at a discounted price from the Get Composting website.
See our composting page for more information.
The garden waste service can be transferred to a new property if required, or cancelled altogether.
We will not issue a refund if you move out of the area or stop using the service for any reason.
Damaged bins will be repaired or replaced for subscribers to the service at no charge.
Report a missing, stolen or broken bin.
New stickers can be sent out, but a missing sticker should not prevent the bin from being emptied.