1. Free Loose Compost
Free loose compost is available for all Huntingdonshire residents at Waterbeach, Alconbury and March transfer stations. Simply visit with a spade and a bag and you can help yourself. You can collect your own soil improver from:
- Waterbeach Waste Management Park, Ely Road, Waterbeach, CB25 9PG
Open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm and weekends from 8am to 1pm
- Alconbury Waste Transfer Station, Stangate Business Park, Alconbury Hill, PE28 4JH
Open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm
- March Waste Transfer Station, Melbourne Avenue, Hundred Road, March, PE15 0EN
Open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm
If you cannot make it to any of the transfer station sites to load your own soil conditioner, then you can buy it for £3.50 a bag at any household recycling centre.
2. Community Compost Schemes
Communal composting is a shared composting place. It is a great way to reduce waste, consolidating kitchen scraps from multiple households into shared composting facilities using less space along the way.
This approach enhances overall efficiency and resource utilisation. The compost can then serve the community, encouraging sustainable gardening practices. Beyond that, communal composting builds a sense of teamwork and responsibility. People in the community can work together to manage the compost, making it a shared project that benefits everyone.
Has this been done before?
Yes. Marmalade Lane in Cambridge has implemented three community compost bays. Their communal composting significantly reduces individual waste, as evidenced by the 6 small green bins shared among 42 households.
How to get started?
You will need 1 person from your community to monitor it.
Feel free to email wasteminimisation@huntingdonshire.gov.uk for advice or to be put in touch with Marmalade Lane.
3. Subsidised Home Composters
The residents will pay £10 and the delivery costs directly to GetComposting.
The subsidy applies to a maximum of 2 compost converters per household. Please visit GetComposting, enter your postcode, select Blackwall 220 Litre Black Compost Converter and the discount will be automatically applied.
4. Parish Council Allocation for Land Management
Parish councils can request bins, which they can allocate to residents who currently maintain HDC land.
Each request will be verified prior to approval and may be subject to refusal if the location is not suitable.
5. Shared Bins
Households will be able to make a personal arrangement with a neighbour to share the cost of a garden bin subscription. If people share their garden waste bin with a neighbour, the householder who pays the annual charge will have overall responsibility for the bin as a bin can only be allocated to one address. It is the responsibility of the named householder if the bin is contaminated, misused, or needs replacing.
The garden bin/s need to be presented for collection outside the property which has the registered subscription.
The agreement to share bins is between the payer and their neighbour only. If circumstances change, then the payer remains the primary contact.
6. Assisted Collections
Residents who cannot take their bins out themselves and there is no other person living at the household who is able to help can apply to have assisted bin collections. This service is provided for all bin collections, not just garden waste collections.
To apply go to the Assisted Collections page.
7. Household Recycling Centres
Household recycling centres are open 7 days a week in:
8. Free Freighter Service
The Saturday freighter service has now ended. We will provide updates regarding any plans for 2025 as soon as further details become available.
View the Freighter Locations and Schedules9. For Parishes Not Eligible for Freighter Service
Parish councils not included in the Saturday freighter schedule can request up to 10 community bins for a community location.
These bins will be accessible for local residents to use to deposit their garden waste and will be collected as part of the normal route scheduling for fortnightly garden bin collections.
It will be the responsibility of the parish council to manage these bins, the same as a household, ie no contamination, out for collection on the collection day.
10. Free Compost for Parish Councils
As part of our ongoing garden waste initiatives, we are pleased to announce that we have made arrangements to provide a skip load (5 tonnes) of compost free of charge to parish councils. This initiative is aimed at supporting our residents in their gardening and composting efforts.
We can arrange the delivery of this compost to a designated location within your parish, where the skip will be emptied. The loose compost will then be available for residents to collect in quantities as they wish.
If you are interested in taking advantage of this offer for your residents please email wasteminimisation@huntingdonshire.gov.uk with the location where you would like the compost to be dropped off. Once we have the location details, we will schedule a delivery date.