Garden Waste

The majority of garden waste such as grass cuttings, leaves, hedge prunings, twigs and garden fruit is biodegradable, which means there are plenty of ways to recycle this material and prevent it ending up in landfill sites.

A quick and easy example is by leaving grass cuttings on your lawn, or using them as mulch on flower beds, reduces the amount of watering they require.

However garden waste can be disposed of at a Community Recycling Site that offers the relevant facility, or any of the six Household Waste and Recycling Centres in Powys free of charge.

Please note, these services are for householders only. Commercial gardeners cannot legally use these sites, but can purchase a permit which allows them to take their garden waste to the Waste and Recycling Centres. For information, please contact the Waste Services team.   

Householders are also being encouraged to compost at home. The council sells compost bins at £15 each including delivery or £10 if bought from a Waste and Recycling Centre. To find out more please click here.

A last resort is to purchase orange plastic bags from the Council, which are then collected from the kerbside alongside black refuse bags by the collection crew.

These bags can be purchased by contacting 0845 602 7035. 

This method should only be considered once all the other environmentally friendly methods of dealing with garden waste have been considered, as unfortunately this material will be landfilled.

Orange bags must be used, as any other bags containing garden waste are no longer collected and will be left by the crews with a sticker stating “Bag Not Collected”. These bags will not be regarded as a missed collection and the householder will be required to retrieve them.

The policy and change in service in April 2006 was implemented to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill, and the Council can issue a written notice to prosecute householders persistently using the wrong containers for garden waste, under Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.