Brown bin collection service

All accessible properties in Suffolk Coastal receive a fortnightly brown bin collection service for garden and food waste. This waste is taken to a multi-million pound composting facility at Parham where it is turned into a soil improver for use in agriculture.

Thanks to the Parham facility, your brown bin can be used for garden waste and all types of food, cooked or raw, shredded paper, and cardboard.

Your collection day

Your brown bin is emptied fortnightly during the weeks highlighted on the refuse and recycling calendars that are sent out to every home at the begining of the year. This will be the same day your blue lidded bin for recyclable materials is emptied.

Your bins should be out ready for emptying at 7.30am as collections start early. Please note that the time of collection may change at any time, so to avoid missing the collection, always put your bin out by 7.30am.

What to put in your brown bin

Please use your brown bin for the following:

• Fruit and vegetables
• Meat, fish and bone scraps
• Eggs and dairy products
• Cereal, bread, pasta and pastry
• Tea bags and coffee grounds
• Shredded paper
• Kitchen paper towels
• Food packaging such as cereal packets and cardboard egg boxes
• Cardboard boxes
• Grass cuttings
• Weeds (but not Japanese Knotweed)
• Straw and hay
• Dead flowers
• Bedding plants
• Leaves
• Light shrub cuttings
• Hedge trimmings
• Sawdust
• Untreated wood chippings
• Bedding from vegetarian pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.

Kitchen food waste can be raw or cooked. We recommend double wrapping food items in newspaper to stop smells and flies. Please do not put any of the items listed above in plastic bags or biodegradable bags in your brown bin as this will prevent the composting process. Compostable bags can be used, but they must specifically state on them that they are '100% compostable'.

Do not put any of the following items in the brown bin:

• Plastic bags or film
• Flower pots
• Garden tools - trowels for example
• Electrical equipment
• Cans, tins or foil
• Soil or stones
• Turf
• Treated wood
• Glass
• Textiles or carpets
• Plastic
• Nappies
• Cat and dog waste
• Branches thicker than 1.5 inches
• Cigarette butts or chewing gum
• Japanese Knotweed

If your brown bin contains any of the items above it will not be emptied as these items are not suitable for composting.

Help us to provide the best service possible by following these guidelines:

• Please remember that collections start at 7.30am.
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• Put the brown bin at the boundary of your property where your access meets the public highway.
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• Do not force too much waste into the brown bin as it can stick inside the bin and prevent it from being emptied.
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• Please ensure that the lid can be closed when it is presented for collection. If the lid is open then the bin will not be emptied.
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• Please take your bin in as soon as you can after collection.

If the brown bin is not presented in the correct place by 7.30am on the day of collection, or contains any incorrect items, it will not be emptied.

If you are unable to push your bin when it is full, for instance due to infirmity, please contact Suffolk Coastal Services on 01394 444000 to arrange collection of your bin from a convenient location on your property.

I wasn't given a bin or my bin has been stolen or damaged

Suffolk Coastal Services can arrange for a replacement bin to be delivered or collected. If your wheeled bin is stolen, lost or becomes damaged beyond repair, you will have to pay the cost of a replacement bin. In the loss or damage is caused when the bin is being emptied by Suffolk Coastal Services, they will replace or repair the bin at no cost you.

From April 2011, the cost of providing wheeled bins for refuse, recycling and compostable waste for new properties, should be met by the developer.

The cost of supplying a blue lidded or all grey bin (including SCDC/SCS stickers) is £24.80 per bin inclusive of VAT plus delivery and the cost to supply a brown bin is £21.70 per bin inclusive of VAT plus delivery.

Delivery per load of bins to a developer for multiple developments, or per set of 3 bins if a single property development is £34.55 inclusive of VAT.

Please call Suffolk Coastal Services on 01394 444000 or email scsltd@suffolkcoastal.gov.uk for further advice.

Need a second brown bin?

If you have more garden waste than you can fit in the brown bin, additional brown bins are available for excess garden waste. An annual fee will be charged to cover the additional cost of collecting and processing this additional garden waste. Call Suffolk Coastal Services on 01394 444000 or email scsltd@suffolkcoastal.gov.uk for more information.

Home composting

If you find that you have too much garden waste and vegetable waste to fit in your brown bin why not try home composting. Home composting is the most environmentally friendly way to deal with your garden and vegetable waste.

Alternatively, you can take garden waste to the household waste recycling centres at Foxhall, Felixstowe or Leiston:

• Felixstowe - Carr Road (off the end of Langer Road).
• Leiston - Lovers Lane (road to Sizewell Power Station).
• Foxhall - 1 mile west of A12, 1 mile before Speedway Stadium.

Follow this link for household waste recycling centre (new window) opening times.

What happens to the waste collected in the brown bin?

The waste collected in the brown bins is delivered to the 'in vessel' composting facility at Parham. It is mixed and chopped before being put in large steel drums which continually rotate to mix and aerate the waste. This accelerates the composting process in a controlled environment. The resulting compost is then screened and pasteurised before being despatched.

Follow this link to find out more about how waste is composted at Parham (new window).

The end product is fully compliant with waste disposal legislation and is high in many essential plant nutrients desirable to local farmers for crop production and so is an attractive alternative to artificial fertiliser. It also has the additional benefit of increasing organic matter in the soil.

Garden waste taken to the household waste recycling centres is composted at Foxhall landfill site. Follow this link to find out more about garden waste composting at Foxhall.