Torbay’s new kerbside garden waste collection service starts this week – and you can still sign up.

Crews from SWISCo, who will be providing the service on our behalf, have been busy delivering around 3,000 brown bins so far to those who have already signed up.

The service will be more convenient for residents, saving time and money on journeys to the Recycling Centre, and also better for the environment.

You can sign up online for your garden waste to be collected from your home every other week, for £50 per year (or £40 per year if you are on Council Tax support). Though they will briefly pause for the last two weeks of December and first two weeks of January 2023, they will then resume.

For those who choose to opt-in, your garden waste will be collected on alternate weeks to residual (household) waste collections. Anyone on weekly residual (non-recyclable waste) collections will be advised when their collections will be, but this service will be fortnightly for everyone.

This means there will be 24 collections per year, which equates to approximately £2 per collection.

Collected garden waste will be turned into compost – this will all be done locally, it takes four months to convert from garden waste to high-grade compost, which will have no additional additives or chemical process and will be completely organic.

It’s part of wider plans to increase recycling in Torbay from the current 37% rate to the target rate of 50%, and the introduction of garden waste collections will help to contribute to this through the whole life of this service.

Steve Darling, Leader of Torbay Council, said: “Thanks to all those who have signed up for the new service so far – we know this is something residents have asked for and we are very pleased to be able to launch this new, convenient and environmentally friendly garden waste collection service for Torbay residents.”

Mike Morey, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Environment and Culture for Torbay Council said: “We are committed to doing all we can to tackle climate change and make Torbay carbon neutral by 2030 and increasing our recycling rates and reducing our carbon footprint are an essential, part of this.”

“We hope to significantly reduce the hundreds of tonnes of garden waste that are currently disposed of with residual or household waste every year. The added bonus is that the garden waste that’s collected will be used as compost so continue to benefit the local environment.”

There will be an initial cost to the Council of £1.6m to kick the scheme off and the service would cost around £1.2m per year to run (to enable the new service to be launched, SWISCo will be investing in more staff and new vehicles).

For those who aren’t planning to sign up to the household garden waste collections, there are a number of other options. You will still be able to take your garden waste to the Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) in Paignton, or to the seasonal remote collection points in Torquay and Brixham. In addition residents will still be able to pay for one off garden waste collections via the bulky waste service.

Find out more about garden waste services