Herefordshire Council plans to introduce new garden and food waste collection services from next year, following a Cabinet decision (Thursday 1 May 2025).
Following the successful launch of the new recycling and waste collection service in September 2024, and the recent introduction of the collection of small electrical items and batteries for recycling, the service is set to develop further next year with the introduction of new household garden and food waste collections.
These exciting new services will help to achieve the council’s ambitious recycling targets, by providing residents with additional opportunities to recycle.
There will be no changes to the existing household waste and recycling collections when the new services are introduced.
Garden waste collection service
The new garden waste collection service will be introduced from March 2026, and will be an optional service that residents can choose to pay for. The fortnightly collection service will replace the existing green garden sacks, and will operate all year round (apart from two weeks over Christmas and New Year).
The service will cost £60 for the year. A new bin will be provided to residents who choose to subscribe, to collect lawn cuttings, hedge clippings, leaves, twigs and small branches, dead flowers and weeds. The garden waste collected will be composted.
We will shortly be launching a pre-registration scheme so that residents can gain early access to sign-up later in the year. This will also allow the correct number of bins to be ordered.
No payment will be taken at this stage.
Food waste collection service
All councils are currently required to provide a weekly food waste collection service from March 2026. While we are still awaiting the new grant allocations from central government to sufficiently fund this in our county, the Cabinet approval of the plans will allow preparations to be made for a smooth introduction of the service when funding becomes available.
When the food collection service is introduced, all households will be provided with a small food waste caddy to use in the kitchen, and a larger outside caddy to use for collection. There will be a weekly collection of any waste food including leftovers, peelings, tea bags and coffee grounds.
The new service will only start when central government funding has been provided.
Councillor Elissa Swinglehurst, Cabinet member Environment said: “The introduction of these new garden and food waste collection services will be a positive step towards increased recycling in the county. Combined with the recently introduced collection of batteries and small electrical items, the recycling rates are expected to rise from 40 percent to 58 percent.
“I recently met with a group of primary school children, who were very aware of the importance of reducing waste and using resources wisely. The introduction of these new services shows our commitment to making sure we are doing what we can to support our residents to recycle as much as possible.”
Further details are available on the council website.
Further details of the new Waste Electrical and electronic equipment and batteries recycling collection is available at Rubbish collections – Herefordshire Council
