Living in Moor Park

Garden Waste, Recycling & Composting

The dumping of garden refuse and rubbish including lawn cuttings, branches and dead flowers on any part of the common areas of the Estate or in gutters is prohibited. Additionally, leaves should not be blown or raked on to roads as it blocks the gullies. All garden waste must be collected and disposed of in the brown bins supplied by the Council specifically for garden refuse and collected fortnightly by Three Rivers District Council. Residents can apply to the Council for a second brown bin if required.

Council Refuse Collections

The Council provides a green bin for domestic waste that cannot be recycled or composted.

They also provide a brown bin for the kerbside collection of garden waste, a black bin with a green lid for recycling and a grey pod for food.

The brown bin service is chargeable. Please click on this link https://www.threerivers.gov.uk/egcl-page/brown-bins for further information and to sign up for the Garden Waste Collection Service. Residents can pay an additional fee for a second brown bin.

For the collection calendar please use this link: https://www.threerivers.gov.uk/egcl-page/refuse-and-recycling-calendars

Composting

Whenever possible, we encourage residents to compost their garden waste. When recycled, garden waste is transformed into nutrient-rich soil conditioner. Most types of garden waste can be recycled, including bark, flowers, grass and hedge cuttings, leaves, plants, small branches, twigs and weeds.

Composting helps reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill but also provides a habitat for a range of minibeasts, who live among the waste and help the decaying process whilst also providing a delicious food source for hedgehogs and other animals, who use the compost as a home to hibernate during the winter months.

What to put in your compost:

Grass cuttings and dead leaves.
Fruit and vegetable scraps and peel.
Plain cardboard (not the glossy cereal box kind).
Old cut flowers and bedding plants.
Prunings and dead plants.
Coffee grounds.
Tea bags (check your teabags don’t contain plastic first!).
Pet droppings from any healthy veg-eating pets, including gerbils, rabbits, hamsters and birds, along with any bedding made from natural material or newspaper.
Eggshells – these help to keep the heap from smelling.
Newspapers – shredded paper can help to soak up excess moisture in a heap.

Top tips for composting:

Ensure you have a good mix of items. If you have large amounts of compostable items to dispose of, such as hedge trimmings or bags of cut grass, it is worth using your garden waste bin.
Composting works best if you add a fair quantity of material at a time, so it is best to save up your kitchen scraps and add them to the heap along with some prunings or old bedding plants.
It is important to mix the contents of the heap every now and again to aerate it – wait at least three months to turn the heap with a gardening fork.
Your compost is ready to use when it becomes dark and crumbly. Remember! Be careful when you turn or fork your compost, especially in winter, as there may be animals hiding or hibernating in there – everything from smooth newts to hedgehogs!