The final round of garden waste brown bin collections in Leeds begins next week before the service goes into its usual winter break.

Leeds City Council delivers the largest garden waste collection service by any council in the UK, annually collecting more than 31,000 tonnes of garden waste from 220,000 households in brown bins across the city.  The service is designed to assist households with gardens and to supplement home composting.

Each year, brown bin collections are paused during the winter months due to the dramatically reduced demand for garden waste disposal, with the service resuming in the following spring.

This year, the last round of collections will begin from Monday 17 November, with the final scheduled collection day being Saturday 29 November.

To check their street’s final collection day, all Leeds residents who receive a brown bin garden waste collection can go to https://www.leeds.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/check-your-bin-day, while reminders can also be sent directly to smartphones by downloading the popular Leeds Bins app.

After the collections are paused, garden waste can still be taken to any of the eight council-run local household waste recycling centres for free. Sites are open seven days a week, 8am-4pm. Check https://www.leeds.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/recycling-sites for the nearest recycling centre.

All garden waste collected by the council through the year is composted locally and used in farming, horticulture and local land restoration projects. However, composting can also be done at home and is by far the best solution for the environment. This produces excellent soil conditioner for gardens or house plants, with fallen leaves at this time of the year  perfect mulch or leaf mould. For more information on composting visit https://www.leeds.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/composting.