Commercial garden waste disposal
Save money on your commercial garden waste disposal today
Just enter your business postcode…
Save money on your commercial garden waste disposal today
Just enter your business postcode…
Start saving now
Businesses, NGOs, and public institutions with green areas on their premises generate a wide range of garden waste every time these are maintained. This includes grass clippings, branches, and even the fallen leaves of the office bonsai.
However, many remain unsure about its proper garden waste management and disposal. Some end up paying others to discard perfectly reusable plant matter, while others inadvertently mix it with unsuitable items like large logs, treated wood, or hard-to-compost foods.
In this guide, we explain what exactly garden waste is, why disposing of it makes little sense for most, and how managing it in compliance with commercial waste regulations is, in fact, a no-brainer.
Our guide to commercial garden waste walks through the following step-by-step questions to help you determine the best way to dispose of your commercial garden waste:
The amount of commercial garden waste your business generates will primarily depend on the size of your green areas, how often you maintain them, and whether you recycle or compost your waste on your property.
Here’s a summary, along with rough volume estimation figures:
Impact | |
---|---|
Lawn size | Larger lawns will yield more glass clippings, especially in spring. 0.5 to 2 L of grass clippings per square meter of lawn after mowing |
Plant density | The denser (wilder!) your garden, the more biomass it generates. Hedge: 1 - 2 L of branches and leaves per square meter of hedge after pruning. Trees: 1 - 10 L of fallen leaves per tree per week in autumn. Trees: 20 - 100 L of branches per tree per yearly prune. |
Plant types & seasonality | Different plants produce varying amounts of waste, e.g. deciduous trees can shed a significant amount of leaves in autumn. |
Maintenance frequency | Regular maintenance, including mowing, trimming, and pruning will result in more frequent, yet more constant garden waste volumes |
Composting | If you actively compost garden waste or recycle it through other means (e.g. mulching), you will generate less waste overall. |
Let’s assume your business property has a small garden of 10m x 10m, 2 medium-sized trees, 5m2 of hedge, and 60m2 of lawn.
Using the figures from the table, your business’s garden will generate at its peak in autumn:
This equates to 210 litres of uncompressed, unshredded garden waste. Assuming that compressing and shredding any prunings reduces the volume by 30%, this equates to about 150 litres of garden waste, enough to fit in a standard commercial waste bin.
Note that this estimation assumes no composting or recycling, which would substantially reduce these volumes.
Estimating garden waste volumes becomes unnecessary when garden maintenance is outsourced to a landscaping business. They typically include garden waste management as part of their service or recommend a bin size based on local council practices.
💡 Landscaping businesses: We understand that tree surgeons, gardeners, and landscape architects are skilled at estimating garden waste volumes. Nevertheless, they can still benefit from comparing commercial garden waste bin quotes.
Here are your options for commercial garden waste disposal, in order of priority as per the garden waste hierarchy:
Grass clippings and shredded branches and twigs can be used as mulch, protecting your soil from erosion and reducing the amount of weeds. Branches can be recycled into supports for plants, such as tomatoes.
If your business has the means to compost your garden waste on-site, it’s a recommended practice. Not only will you receive a free source of nutrient-rich soil amendment, but you will also save on commercial waste collection costs.
💡 Local rules: It’s important to check with your local council regarding composting regulations, as it can be troublesome if done incorrectly.
Businesses that contract landscaping or gardening services typically have waste management included in their service agreements. They will collect and dispose of garden waste as part of their maintenance services; your business simply needs to ensure that they have the appropriate licensing.
Having exhausted all other garden waste management options, it’s up to your business to arrange for garden waste collection. Start by simply entering your postcode below, and our waste experts can help you find the cheapest prices.
💡 Council-run or private: In many cases (especially in England), local councils allow public and private waste collection contractors to operate side-by-side. If so, you can compare commercial waste collection quotes to find the most cost-effective and convenient option.
Your business can choose from various commercial waste quotes from vetted contractors. These will include service agreements, fees, commercial bin rental and potentially a free commercial waste audit upon signup.
In certain areas (especially in Wales and Scotland), local councils provide garden waste collection services for both businesses and households, providing dedicated bins or containers and waste collection occurring on designated collection days
💡 Not mutually exclusive: If your business finds the local council collection services insufficient for its needs or requires ad-hoc appointments, it’s possible to complement this service with private commercial waste collection.
Here’s what you need to know about managing the waste generated from your business’s green areas:
Commercial garden waste disposal refers to the process of ‘getting rid’ of the naturally-ocurring organic matter generated from your business’s green areas. It involves keeping it separate from residential streams, following the garden waste hierarchy, and understanding its place within the larger Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) stream.
💡 What it isn’t: Contrary to popular belief, garden waste disposal does not involve tossing all your grass clippings, branches, leaves, and other organics generated in your premises into the nearest skip.
UK waste regulations require businesses, NGOs, and public organisations to dispose of their waste separately from domestic waste. This means you must either reuse it within your own property or arrange for its separate collection.
💡 Exceptions: Some local councils have their own collection services and choose to co-mingle business and domestic waste together. Find out the situation in your area on our locations page.
When managing commercial garden waste, the waste hierarchy dictates the following order of priority (from highest to lowest):
Garden waste is a subset of a larger group of organic wastes known as BMWs, which includes commercial food waste and commercial cardboard waste.
While garden waste can be recycled on its own to create natural products such as mulch, sawdust, and lightweight soil amendments, it can be recycled into more comprehensive products like natural fertilisers and even biofuels when combined with other types of organic waste.
See our list of typical garden wastes for more information.
Every business in the UK has a legal duty of care over their garden waste. This involves:
💡 No minimum volumes: The regulations are not explicit about a minimum threshold of garden waste for mandatory separate collection. This is left to the discretion of the council and regulators. For example, small offices with a handful of plant pots are unlikely to be prosecuted for disposing of their minimal garden waste in general bins.
When your council, landscape contractor or waste collection service collects your garden waste, they typically transport it to a nearby biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) processing facility. Here’s what happens to it:
Upon reception at the facility, the garden waste undergoes inspection for contaminants or prohibited materials as indicated in the waste transfer note.
It is then stored separately from other received organic waste streams such as food, cardboard, wood, organic textiles, and agricultural waste.
The garden waste typically undergoes shredding to break it down into smaller pieces that are easier to decompose in subsequent composting.
The shredded material is composted by mixing it with other organic materials such as food waste, spoilt cardboard, spent coffee grounds and wood chips. This controlled decomposition process involves microorganisms breaking down the organic matter, resulting in the production of nutrient-rich compost or soil amendment.
Once broken down into what looks like a soil amendment, a curing and maturation process is required to ensure the material is completely decomposed and free from pathogens and weed seeds.
In this final stage, the compost is tested for its quality, packaged and distributed. It may be purchased by local councils, landscaping companies, nurseries, or garden centres for use as soil conditioner or mulch.
Our business waste experts answer those commonly asked questions about garden waste disposal by businesses.
Collection frequency will vary by location and service provider (i.e. your local council, private collection contractor, or landscaping contractor).
Options include weekly, seasonal or ad-hoc collections, depending on your business needs.
See our section on waste disposal options for more information.
Certainly! Not only is this a cheaper option, but it is a preferred waste management strategy according to the the garden waste hierarchy.
Just bear in mind that you will need to comply with devolved and local regulations, so it’s best to contact your local council for guidance.
The cost will vary by location, service provider and the volume of waste generated. Your easiest option is to get a range of commercial waste quotes from vetted collection companies that operate in your local area.
Use our garden waste volume estimation guidance to do this yourself.