Garden Waste

This section includes leaves, garden chemicals, garden furniture, plant pots and soil.

Reuse/Recycle

Swap seeds and plants at the Transition Marlborough swap events at Marlborough Communities Market. These will be advertised on the home page of the website or in the newsletter.

Twigs, prunings, weeds, lawn mowings and old flowers can all be composted at home; see compost.

Compost small quantities of leaves or make leaf mould – tie your leaves inside a bin liner and punch a few small holes into it, to allow air to circulate.  Leave for a year.  You will be rewarded with beautiful leaf mould that you can spread onto your borders or vegetable patch to suppress weeds. Leaves will break down more quickly if you sprinkle on some water.

Wiltshire Council provides green wheelie bins for green garden waste, free of charge. These are collected from the kerbside fortnightly and the contents made into compost. For details of how to obtain a bin and what may be placed inside, click here.

If you have too much to fit in your green bin, take it to the Marlborough Household Recycling Centre and place in the Green waste container there. This is also made into compost.

Avoid the use of garden chemicals. If you do have any unused chemicals and pesticides, take them to Marlborough Household Recycling Centre for safe disposal. Ask where to put them when you arrive. Never tip chemicals down the sink, loo or drain - the River Kennet has already suffered pollution in 2013 from pesticide that was disposed of inappropriately.

Garden furniture that is no good to sell or give away can be recycled at Marlborough Household Recycling Centre. Ask when you arrive, but it will probably go in wood, metal or rigid plastics recycling containers, depending on what it is made from.

If you cannot find a use for spare plant pots, see if your garden centre will take them back, give to friends or allotment owners or swap clean pots at the Give and Take swap stall at Marlborough Communities Market. Plastic plant pots may be recycled in the hard plastics container at the Household Recycling Centre.

Soil could be stored in an unused bit of garden until you need it somewhere else. If you are taking up part of your lawn  to grow veg, stack the turf upside down in a corner, where it will become usable soil over time. Recycle at Marlborough Household Recycling Centre in the rubble and hardcore container.