What you will find in this guide
Start here: the bit nobody tells you
If you pay someone to take your garden waste away and they fly-tip it, you can be fined. Not just them. You.
Under the householder duty of care, you have to make reasonable checks that whoever removes waste from your property is licensed to do it. If your hedge clippings turn up dumped in a lane in Thamesmead or behind a parade of shops in Catford and get traced back to your address, the council will ask who you gave them to. If you can't show you checked, the problem becomes yours.
Councils can hand householders a fixed penalty notice worth hundreds of pounds, and if it goes to court the fine is unlimited. The government's guidance on household waste duty of care penalties explains how councils enforce it.
The man with a van quoting half what everyone else does is cheap for a reason. Legal disposal at a licensed transfer station costs money. Fly-tipping is free.
We're registered with the Environment Agency as a waste carrier, registration number CBDL75547, since 2015. Every clearance we do includes bagging, loading and legal disposal of the garden waste, with a waste transfer note every time. Send us photos for a free quote.
How to check a waste carrier in two minutes
- Ask for their waste carrier registration number. A legitimate operator will have it on the van, the website and the invoice. If they hesitate, that's your answer.
- Search the public register. The Environment Agency runs a free register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers. Type in the company name or number. It either comes up or it doesn't. You can check ours: CBDL75547.
- Check the tier. A "lower tier" registration covers waste the business produces from its own work, like the cuttings from a clearance it's doing. Anyone collecting waste you've already bagged, or taking rubble and old fencing, needs an "upper tier" registration.
- Or ring the Environment Agency on 03708 506 506 for an instant check.
- Get a waste transfer note. This proves you handed your waste to a licensed carrier. Keep it.
- Photograph the van and number plate before it drives off. If the waste is ever traced back to you, this is how you show who took it.
Don't skip this because a neighbour recommended someone. The fine comes to you, not your neighbour.
Your five options compared
| Option | Roughly what it costs | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Council garden waste bin | Free in Greenwich, £80 to £101 a year elsewhere in SE London | Regular grass cuttings and light trimmings | One bin. Useless for a one-off clearance. |
| Tip run yourself | Free, plus your time and fuel | Small amounts, if you have a car | You need proof of address, some sites need booking, and vans are restricted. Brambles will wreck your boot. |
| Skip hire | £250 to £400 for a 6-yard skip, plus £30 to £120 for a road permit | Big mixed jobs over several days | Needs a council permit on the road. Often not possible on terraced streets. |
| Your gardener removes it as part of the job | With us, £15 per 150-litre bag or £40 per bulk bag | Clearances, hedge work, overgrowth | Only covers waste from the job itself, not piles you've already bagged. |
| Upper tier waste removal company | Varies by load | Waste you've already bagged, rubble, old sheds and fencing | Check they're upper tier on the register before you book. |
Garden waste by borough: bins and recycling centres
Every SE London council runs this differently. Bring photo ID and proof of address to any recycling centre, and check your council's website before loading the car, because rules change.
| Borough | Council garden waste service | Recycling centre | Areas we cover here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greenwich | Free, goes in the weekly green top bin with food waste | Nathan Way, Thamesmead SE28 0AF | Eltham, Blackheath, Charlton, Woolwich, Plumstead (SE9, SE3, SE7, SE18) |
| Lewisham | £100.63 a year, weekly brown bin | Landmann Way, SE14 5RS. No booking, but vans are limited to a few visits a year | Lee, Catford, Hither Green, Grove Park (SE12, SE6, SE13) |
| Bromley | £80 a year | Churchfields Road, Beckenham BR3 4QY, booking required. Waldo Road is closed for works until late 2026 | Chislehurst, Bromley, Beckenham, Mottingham (BR7, BR1, BR3, SE9) |
| Bexley | £87 a year, fortnightly brown bin | Foots Cray (Maidstone Road, DA14 5HS) and Thames Road, Crayford (DA1 5QJ). No booking, no vans | Sidcup, Bexleyheath, Welling (DA14, DA15, DA6, DA16) |
| Southwark | £84 a year, weekly brown bin | Devon Street, off Old Kent Road SE15 1AL | Dulwich, Peckham (SE21, SE22, SE15) |
Not sure if we cover your street? Check all the areas we cover.
What counts as garden waste
Green waste is anything that came out of the garden and will rot down:
- Grass cuttings, weeds and leaves
- Hedge clippings and prunings
- Brambles, ivy and general overgrowth
- Branches and small tree limbs
- Turf and soil in reasonable amounts
- Old bedding plants and spent compost
What isn't green waste, even if it came from the garden
This changes both the price and who can legally take it.
- Rubble, hardcore and broken paving. Construction waste. Needs an upper tier carrier or a tip that accepts it.
- Old sheds, fence panels and decking. Treated timber and demolition waste, not green waste.
- Garden furniture and plastics.
- Fridges, freezers and electricals. Covered by WEEE rules and need their own route.
- Japanese knotweed. Legally controlled waste. Moving it wrongly is an offence. You need a specialist with an insurance-backed guarantee.
- Asbestos. Common in older SE London shed and garage roofs as corrugated cement sheets. Licensed removal only.
- Paint, solvents and chemicals. Use your council's hazardous waste service.
Not sure what you've got? Send a photo before anyone quotes. Bamboo gets mistaken for knotweed all the time, and bamboo we can handle. Our guide to bamboo removal in SE London explains why it's harder than it looks.
How much waste does a job actually produce?
Almost everyone underestimates this. A garden that looks like "a couple of bags" is usually four times that once the brambles are cut down.
| Job | Typical volume | Van loads |
|---|---|---|
| Hedge trim, one boundary | 4 to 8 small bags | Under half |
| Seasonal tidy, average terraced garden | 8 to 15 small bags | About half |
| Clearance after 2 years of neglect | 1 to 2 cubic metres | 1 |
| Long-abandoned garden | 3 to 6 cubic metres | 2 to 3 |
| Turf removal, average lawn | Heavy, not bulky | 1 to 2, weight limited |
Turf and soil catch people out. A van hits its weight limit long before it looks full.
Before and after: what that looks like in real life
See more in our overgrown garden before and after transformations.
Send us a photo and we'll tell you the volume. We quote once we can see it, not blind with surprises on the day.
What garden waste removal costs
We remove the garden waste from the jobs we do and charge for it by the bag, separately from labour, so you can estimate it before we visit.
| Bag | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 150-litre bag | £15 per bag | Hedge trims, border tidies, light pruning |
| Bulk bag | £40 per bag | Clearances, overgrowth, anything big |
Small bags or bulk bag?
A bulk bag holds roughly six to seven times what a small bag does, for under three times the price. Three small bags already cost £45, more than one bulk bag, and the bulk bag holds twice as much again.
Rule of thumb: one or two small bags' worth, go small. Three or more, go bulk. We'll tell you which works out cheaper when we quote.
What moves the price
- Volume. The biggest factor, which is why we ask for photos.
- Weight. Soil, turf and wet waste fill a bag's weight limit before its space.
- Access. Carrying everything through the house takes longer than using a side gate.
- Parking. Controlled parking zones in parts of Lewisham, Greenwich and Southwark can affect how close the van gets.
Because the team and van are already on site, adding waste removal to a clearance or maintenance visit is the cheapest way to get it done. Our garden clearance cost guide covers labour, and the garden clearance service page shows what's included.
Six warning signs of a rogue operator
- No registration number, or they go vague when asked.
- Cash only, no paperwork. No invoice, no waste transfer note.
- Cold approach. Door knocking or local Facebook group posts offering rock-bottom clearance.
- Unmarked van. Legit operators show their name and licence number.
- Too cheap. If everyone says £150 and one person says £40, ask where the waste goes.
- Vague about disposal. A licensed carrier can name the transfer station they use.
Cut the waste before it starts
The cheapest load is the one you never need removed.
Compost grass cuttings, leaves and soft prunings, but not perennial weed roots or diseased plants. Chip woody prunings and reuse them as mulch. And a garden looked after through the year produces a fraction of the waste of one cleared every three years, which is the real case for regular garden maintenance. Our tips for keeping a garden clean and tidy cover the year-round approach.
Ready to clear it? We're a registered waste carrier (CBDL75547) based in Eltham, covering all of South East London. Send photos for a free quote or call 07760 800457.
Frequently asked questions
Green waste is charged at £15 per 150-litre bag for small amounts, or £40 per bulk bag for larger volumes. A bulk bag holds roughly six to seven times what a small bag does, so anything over about four bags of waste is cheaper as a bulk bag. Disposal is quoted separately from labour.
Bagging and loading are included in the clearance work. Disposal is quoted separately based on volume, because that varies far more between gardens than the labour does.
Non-green waste like rubble, treated timber and old furniture follows a different disposal route and is quoted separately. Tell us what is there when you send photos so the quote covers everything.
It is the document recording that your waste was handed to a licensed carrier. It is your evidence that you met your duty of care if the waste is later found dumped. Ask for one and keep it.
Yes, householders can take their own waste to a recycling centre. Most SE London sites require booking and have restrictions on vans and trailers, so check your borough's rules first. It works for small volumes but becomes impractical fast for a full clearance.
If the skip sits on a public road rather than your own driveway, yes, you need a permit from the council. On terraced streets with no off-street parking this is often the deciding factor against skip hire.
It goes to a licensed transfer station and is composted where possible rather than sent to landfill.
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