Recycling and Sustainability — Gardening Raynes Park

Gardening Raynes Park is committed to creating an eco-friendly waste disposal area and a sustainable rubbish gardening area that supports local biodiversity and reduces landfill. Our approach to garden recycling Raynes Park blends practical on-site separation with community partnerships so green waste is reused, composted, or diverted to re-use streams. This policy page outlines targets, facilities, partnerships, and the low-emission transport that underpins our everyday operations.

Our vision for Gardening in Raynes Park places the circular economy at its heart: garden materials such as woody prunings, grass cuttings, and soil are treated as resources rather than refuse. We promote an eco-friendly waste disposal area within our depots and service locations where volunteers and staff can deposit separated loads for onward processing. The borough-level approach in the London Borough of Merton emphasises separate food waste, mixed recycling and residual waste, and we align our sorting systems with that model to make cross-service exchange efficient and legally compliant.

To make progress measurable, Gardening Raynes Park has set a formal recycling percentage target of 65% by 2028 for all collected garden and domestic green waste across our contracted routes and community sites. This figure covers diverted composting, material reuse and transfers to local recycling centres. We track diversion rates monthly, and our target will be reviewed against borough targets and national guidance to ensure consistency with wider municipal objectives.

We maintain a dedicated disposal area that is designed to reduce contamination and improve recovery. The area includes clearly labelled bays for:

• Green/organic waste (for compost or anaerobic digestion)
• Wood and timber suitable for chipping
• Reusable soil and turf kept separate for reclamation
• Hard landscaping materials that can be sorted for reuse

For residents and community gardeners, we encourage small-scale drop-offs at our site during open hours and arrange scheduled collections for larger estates. Our systems are compatible with Raynes Park gardening group activities and local allotments that rely on clean, well-sorted inputs. We follow the London Borough of Merton's waste separation guidance so that food and packaging recycling streams remain uncontaminated.

We also work with nearby transfer stations to ensure materials head to the right processing facilities as efficiently as possible. Local transfer stations serving the area include Merton's borough transfer facilities and nearby centres in Kingston and Wandsworth, which accept segregated green waste, wood, and inert materials for recycling or energy recovery.

Partnership working is central to our sustainable rubbish gardening area. Gardening Raynes Park partners with charities, social enterprises and community groups to maximise reuse: items suitable for rehoming are passed to local charities and horticultural projects, while compost and mulch support community food growing schemes. We maintain formal relationships with local reuse organisations and regional networks, including community allotments and volunteer-led green space projects, to ensure materials circulate within the local economy.

Our collection fleet has been progressively upgraded to reduce emissions: we operate a mixture of low-carbon vans including electric vehicles for shorter urban runs and Euro 6 diesel plug-in hybrids for heavier loads. Route optimisation software reduces miles travelled and idling time, and all drivers receive training in eco-driving techniques. This low-emission strategy complements our on-site recycling so that the whole service chain from collection to processing is sustainable.

To support community engagement we host seasonal reuse events and share surplus mulch and compost with local groups rather than sending materials to landfill. Initiatives include seedling swaps, compost-sharing days and coordinated deliveries to community food projects. By combining practical operations with education, Gardening Raynes Park aims to be a model of how a local garden service can deliver a high recycling percentage target while minimising the carbon footprint of collections and processing.