Garden Waste Clearance Leicester

The Brief · Leicester

Garden Waste Clearance for Leicester

Leicester City Council's garden waste bin has a season. Collections run fortnightly on Mondays from March to November, with 20 collections in a 12-month subscription, and only households can sign up. That covers summer mowing and autumn leaves. It does not help with a winter clear-out, a hedge cut back hard in December, or a garden where the job is mostly soil and turf, which the bin will not take at all. Both city recycling centres accept garden waste. Soil, though, counts as DIY waste with a strict limit per visit, and anyone paid to garden is treated as a business. So the bigger the job, the more the rules decide how the waste can leave. Here is how they work in Leicester, with sources, so you can choose between the bin, the tip and a garden waste clearance.

The council supplies a green 240 litre bin. Garden waste must go in loose, with no plastic, compostable or biodegradable bags. Grass, leaves, hedge trimmings, weeds, bark and twigs and branches under 150mm thick are all accepted. Soil, turf, logs, larger branches, treated wood, gravel, rubble, pond sludge and Japanese knotweed are not. Put the bin out by 7am. A bin that is too heavy for the crew to empty safely may be missed.

Both recycling centres take garden waste: Gypsum Close, LE4 9AB, and Freemen's Common on Islington Street, LE2 7SQ. From April to October they are open 8am to 8pm, and 8am to 6pm from November to March. Freemen's Common does not accept vans, pick-ups or cars towing trailers longer than 1.4 metres. Those vehicles need a council permit and must use Gypsum Close.

Soil is the catch. Leicester lists soil, bricks and rubble as DIY waste. That limits you to 100 litres, or two 50 litre bags, per visit and four visits in any four weeks. Lifting a whole lawn is likely to produce more than that.

The council also treats waste from gardening services as trade waste. A gardener you pay must take it to a licensed route, such as the trade facility at Gypsum Close.