Guide to Bins, Boxes & Collections
Bin Collections
East Herts Council has an alternate refuse and recycling collection service. This means your black wheeled bin is collected fortnightly on your waste week with your blue alternate week.
We also offer a paid for Garden Waste Collection service. If you subscribe to this service your garden waste will be collected from your brown bin, along with your blue-lidded recycling bin, fortnightly.
For more information on your recycling, composting & refuse service, please see our latest 'Your recycling, composting and refuse service guide'
Please note the following;
- Only items that cannot be composted or recycled should go into your black bin or sacks.
- East Herts Council provides each household in the district with one black bin and one blue lidded bin.
- Only waste contained within the wheeled bins will be collected.
- For residents who have difficult access or no front or rear garden we operate a sack collection service. In these circumstances we also provide a green paper box and a blue recycling box which will be collected fortnightly on your recycling week. More boxes are available on request.
- We offer a boundary collection service; this means your bin must be presented with the lid closed at the boundary of your property by 7am.
- The boundary of your property is where the front of your property / garden meets the public highway (pavement or road).
- Operatives will not step onto your property. Extra waste left at the side of the bins or placed on top of the bins will not be collected.
- If you are not physically able to place your bins on the boundary you may qualify for an Assisted Bin Collection.
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If you have a bin that is damaged or you have a bin missing please, Request a replacement bin for your property.
Contamination
If any of your bins contain items which are not acceptable it will NOT be emptied as this is considered contamination. You must remove the contamination and the crew will collect it on your next scheduled collection date. We will not return for contaminated bins.
Blue bin collections
Recycling is collected mixed via your blue lidded bin. The only separating you will need to do is placing paper in your paper box.
East Herts Council provides each household in the district with one blue lidded bin.
Please Note: We do not accept additional bags or boxes of recycling alongside of your blue lidded bin, this includes large cardboard (which should be contained within the blue lidded bin).
Inner paper box/kerbside box collections
Residents have the option of using either an inner paper box for separated paper which sits inside the blue lidded bin or blue/green kerbside box for paper. (Please use a lid to keep papers dry).
You can place additional paper out for collection in a kerbside box if you need to.
If you would like an inner box for your blue lidded bin please complete our new or replacement bin form.
Black bin collections
Your black bin should only be used for items which are not able to be recycled.
There are many clothes banks across the District, see our Clothes Recycling centres in East Herts page for more information
These items and many others below can be recycled, often at Local Household Waste & Recycling Centres
Brown bin collections
Your brown bin is for food and garden waste.
If you find your brown bin is regularly full, home composting can reduce the amount of food and garden waste you generate - check out our guide to home composting.
Kitchen caddies are small boxes that are useful for food waste. If you need one, please request one via our new or replacement bins page. These kitchen caddies can be wrapped in newspaper or compostable bags to keep the caddies clean. These are available via most good supermarkets or found online in stores such as Caddy Liner website. Only bags that have the seedling logo can be placed inside the brown bins.