Perhaps your fingers are already a deep and earthy shade of green. Or perhaps you can’t tell the difference between a shovel and a spade. It doesn’t matter! Whatever your level of expertise, National Gardening Week is your perfect opportunity to start something beautiful.
There are many ways to get involved with National Gardening Week. Suggestions range from building a bee hotel to planting a night-scented garden to attract moths.
The event’s site, which is run by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), also includes tips on how to start an allotment, planting a green roof, and there’s even a guide to edible flowers.
But no matter what project you choose, it’s hard to do any gardening without producing a bit of gardening waste. To help keep your green hobbies green, we produced this short guide to disposing of your gardening waste.
Disposing of Gardening Waste – Here’s What You Need to Know
If you live in England and Wales, you might be lucky enough to live in one of the councils that provide a home collection service for garden waste. If you don’t, there is no need to worry, here at Enva we have all the waste disposal services that you’ll need when doing a spot of gardening, including:
· Food and Green Waste Collections
· Wood Recycling
· Concrete, Bricks and Aggregates Removal
Enter your postcode on this site to find out what sort of collection services are available in your area. You’ll be directed to the specific page on your local council’s site. If your council runs a garden waste collection service, you’ll likely have to apply for it.
Your council will supply you with a separate sack or bin for your garden waste, and they’ll let you know when collections take place. They’ll also let you know what can and can’t be included in your garden waste.
As well as being convenient, this is also an environmentally-friendly option, as all waste is composted. Please note, though, that most councils charge a seasonal fee for this service.
But What If My Council Doesn’t Offer a Garden Waste Collection Service?
There are a number of things you can do:
Make Your Own Compost
A lot of gardeners use their garden waste to make their own compost. If your garden’s big enough, you can start a compost heap. Otherwise, compost bins are available from all good garden centres.
Here are the sort of things you can add to your compost heap or bin:
· Weeds and lawn mowings
· Soft hedge clippings
· Old bedding plants
· Fallen leaves
· Kitchen waste such as vegetable peelings
Bear in mind though, that if you’re going to add kitchen waste to your compost, don’t add any food waste, and don’t add any meat. This will only attract pests and scavengers.
Build up your compost in layers. Every six inches or so, add a layer of soil, or some fresh manure. And once your heap or bin is full, keep it covered for about six months – an old bit of carpet will do the job here.
All your ingredients will biodegrade, leaving a fibrous soil. You’ll then have an ample supply of nutritious soil-improver, all without spending a penny, and all without producing any waste at all!
Make a Trip to the Tip
Most tips and recycling centres have a specific area for organic garden waste. Here are some examples of the sort of things they accept:
· Leaves and flowers
· Grass and weeds
· Pruned branches, clippings, twigs, and bark
· Home-grown fruit and vegetables
Recycle Now has an excellent recycling locator. Just fill in their online form and they’ll help you find your nearest recycling centre.
Recycle Now also recommends using strong and durable bags to transport your waste, rather than ordinary bin liners, and they advise against overfilling your bags. This way, you can simply empty your waste at the site. And as the bag is less likely to tear, you can take it back home with you, ready to use again next time.
Arrange For Collection by a Third Party Waste Management Specialist
If your local council doesn’t offer a collection service, if you have no need for compost, and if you cannot make it to your local tip or recycling centre, what then?
Simple! You just arrange for someone else to do the collecting and recycling for you. At Enva we a wide range of skips that are perfect for a gardening project of any size. Enquire about our skip hire services today.
There are lots of third-party companies out there that specialise in waste collection and recycling, and many of them will readily accept garden waste.
However, these companies are just as particular as councils when it comes to what is and isn’t accepted. Keep it organic!
But that said it’s fair to say that a company that can recycle garden waste will also be able to efficiently dispose of other waste. So if you’ve got a mixture of waste that needs collecting and recycling, make sure you tell the company in advance, and make sure you separate your organic waste from your non-organic waste.
So there you have it! If you correctly dispose of your waste you’ll be making the world a greener place in more ways than one.
At Enva we believe in making the most out of our planets resources. Check our full list of recycling services and all the sectors we support.
