The north London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest collect garden waste from residents. It then goes to an in vessel composting plant where it gets turned into nutrient-rich compost that can be used to grow crops and food.
What happens at an in vessel composting plant?
In-vessel composting involves different stages:
- The garden waste is shredded to reduce its size.
- It goes through a 'sanitation' process - a kind of cleaning process to kill any harmful pathogens or weed seeds. This takes about a week.
- It is put into the in-vessel tunnel which is enclosed. Here, the garden waste begins to decompose.
- The material is moved to a process called open windrow composting. This process involves the material being piled in the open air in rows, where it is occasionally turned, to allow heat and moisture to mix through and decompose it to compost.
- The compost is checked to make sure it meets the PAS100 standard for compost.
- The compost is collected for use at local farms and horticultural settings.
This video provides a visual guide to the composting process (please note, it does not have voice-over).
We share information about where all our waste and recycling materials go to on our website:
Where does the recycling and waste go?
Make use of your garden waste collection service
If you would like to learn more or sign up to your garden waste collection service, contact your local council. Find out what can and cannot go in the garden waste bin on our garden waste page.
If you have garden waste, but you do not want to use the council garden waste collection service, you can also take it to your local reuse and recycling centre.