Garden waste for flats and estates

If you live on an estate or in a flat, the way your food and garden waste is collected will be changing from 1 June 2019. All estates and flats will require a subscription to the new garden waste service.

Are you eligible?

To find out whether your property is eligible for food or garden waste collection, visit our garden subscription service page. If you're eligible and would like to subscribe, visit our garden subscription service page to complete the subscription form and make payment using our online payment portal. If after subscribing you'd like to know when your garden waste will be collected, visit our schedules page.

I do not receive garden waste collections - how do I add myself to the service?

For properties that currently don't have a garden waste collection service, we may be able to provide a collection; but we'll need to assess your property and see if we can include you on the service. If this is approved, we'll add your address to the collection schedule so you can subscribe to the service. It will take a few days to complete this process.

To arrange an assessment of your property, send an email to environment@southwark.gov.uk with your address and details of the service that you need. You'll also need to include the number of bin loads of garden waste you'll need emptied each week and confirmation that you have a suitable storage location for these.

Do I have to use a 'council brown bin' to use the garden waste service?

We'll only collect garden waste in the brown garden waste bins supplied by the council, or the paper garden waste sacks supplied by the council. These will be available at a cost of £20 for 20 bags from 1 June 2019. Garden waste will not be collected in any other kind of bag or container, or if it's loose or not properly contained.

We cannot collect garden waste in any other container, including plastic bags.

Items that you should include in your garden waste are:

• grass cuttings
• garden weeds, plants, flowers
• leaves, trimmings, prunings
• fruit fall
• twigs and small branches, less than 10 cm / 4 inches thick

If you're using this service, you should not include the following items:

• food waste
• soil, turf
• gravel, stones, bricks, rubble
• large tree branches
• flower pots or trays
• Japanese Knotweed
• garden furniture, fencing, sheds, greenhouses
• nappies and sanitary items
• plastic packaging

Page last updated: 12 August 2022