Brown bin garden waste collection

You can subscribe to the service by ordering and paying in advance for one year. For the duration of the subscription, you will receive a brown wheeled bin in which to keep your garden waste. 

The brown bin is emptied fortnightly with the exception of a four week period over Christmas and New Year.  This year, garden waste collections will be suspended at the end of Friday 20 December 2024 and will resume from Monday 20 January 2025.

The garden waste collection service makes a significant contribution to Cheltenham's recycling rate.

Find your collection day

Find your collection day (if subscribed).

Sign up (new customers)

Sign up now for a 12 month subscription at £55 per bin plus a delivery charge per bin.

If you have a lapsed or cancelled bin subscription in the previous 12 months at the same address you will need to pay the standard charge of £55.

Renewals

Renew your subscription.

No space for a wheelie bin?

If you live in one of the specified areas where there is little or no space for storing a brown wheelie bin, you can have your garden waste collected in compostable paper sacks. Find out more about the garden waste bag service.

What you can put into your brown garden waste bin:

  • Grass cuttings
  • Hedge and shrub clippings
  • Leaves, twigs and bark
  • Plants, flowers and weeds
  • Windfall fruit
  • Small branches

What you should not put in the brown garden waste bin:

  • Soil
  • Animal waste (however pet bedding from herbivores is accepted)
  • Food waste (cooked or uncooked)
  • Vegetable peelings
  • Large branches
  • Plant pots and growbags
  • Ash

Ask the waste wizard where to repair, recycle, donate, or dispose of your items

How the scheme works

If you sign up for the scheme we will provide you with a 240 litre brown wheeled bin for your garden waste. This will be delivered within 4 - 6 weeks of receipt of payment.

Cheltenham Borough Council is committed to reducing the amount of plastic that we use across the borough. Therefore, where possible, we aim to redeploy previously used brown bins to new subscribers. This will extend the life cycle of the plastic bin and reduce our impact on the environment. Reusing bins saves valuable resources and energy that would be needed to make new bins. The reused bins will be thoroughly jet washed and fully checked to make sure they are in good condition before being sent to new subscribers.

The brown bins will be emptied fortnightly with the exception of the four week period over Christmas and New Year.

It is possible to join the scheme at any time in the year on a 12 month contract.

Only garden waste contained within the bin will be collected from the kerbside. Any extra garden waste can be taken to the recycling centre on Swindon Road.  Please ensure you put your bin out by 7am on the day of collection.

Please remember that garden waste must not be put in the green refuse bins. Green refuse bins containing garden waste may not be collected and you may be asked to remove the garden waste before a collection can be made.

We will contact you after 11 months to inform you that your subscription is due for renewal. Your renewal date is set as the first of the month after your bin was delivered. 

If you decide to cancel your garden waste subscription, please present your garden waste bin at the kerbside on your next scheduled collection date and leave it at kerbside, so that this can be removed by our crews and reused. Ubico aim to collect the bin within two weeks, however residents should allow for up to four weeks for this to be collected. If it has not been collected after this time, please contact customer services by emailing [email protected] or call 01242 262626.

If you move house within Cheltenham, please inform us of your new address details, and take the brown bin with you when you move. If you are moving outside the borough please contact us to arrange for collection of the brown bin.

Frequently asked questionsFAQs

Please see our list of frequently asked questions.

Terms and conditions

Please read the terms and conditions before you sign up to our garden waste scheme.

Contact us

If you have any queries about the service, please contact us.

What happens to your garden waste?

Once collected the garden cuttings are taken to our Wingmoor Farm site and composted using a 'windrow' composting process. The material is arranged in long piles, turned regularly and converted into compost. The compost is used as a soil conditioner for land reclamation and landfill restoration. Using the material on the site where it is processed reduces the need to import top soil, thereby reducing cost, vehicle movements and emissions. Diverting the garden cuttings from landfill avoids generating methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.