While there is a legal obligation for us to collect food waste, the same legal obligation doesn't apply to garden waste. 

Along with many other local authorities, we're facing significant budget challenges and to ensure key frontline services are protected, we've introduced this charge for residents who wish to continue to have their garden waste collected. 

The price for the 2025/26 permit is £40. 

You can request a garden waste collection permit online.  Council housing tenants do not need to apply or pay for a garden waste permit - one will be delivered to them before 1 June to display on their brown bin and will ensure it is collected. 

More information on accessing services.

Yes. When you request a permit online you will be asked if you want the permit for your address. If you select No, you can then enter the address of the person you are requesting the permit for and the permit will be posted to that address.

It can take up to 21 working days for a permit to be processed and to be delivered to your address. Your bin will not be lifted until the permit is attached.

Yes, each individual bin requires a permit to be purchased and displayed on the bin.

Each individual bin requires a permit to be displayed, please contact your locality housing office to request additional permits.

Yes. There is no limit to the number of permits a household can purchase.

Your brown bin will be collected fortnightly with the exception of the Christmas and New Year period. There will be notifications on social media and on our website over this period to update you. 

2025/26 permits should be displayed from 1 June 2025.

When your permit arrives, peel the permit from the backing paper and attach the sticker to the back of your brown bin, between the handles. The sticker must be applied to a clean dry, surface and not over an existing sticker.

No, this service is non-statutory and therefore not a legal requirement to provide.  

The majority of councils in Scotland are either charging for garden waste collections, considering implementing a charge or not collecting this waste at all.

Food waste can be placed into the brown bin and this will be collected fortnightly. 

If you use your brown bin for food waste only, then you don't have to do anything. Food waste only brown bins will continue to be collected fortnightly weekly without the need to apply for a permit.

When you purchase a permit you will be issued with a sticker that must be attached to your brown bin. The permit sticker will include your address, so can't be used on bins at different addresses. Sticking the permit to your brown bin indicates to the collection crew that you have subscribed to the garden waste service.

Our teams will check to ensure there is no garden waste in the brown bin if a permit sticker isn't attached. If it's found that garden waste has been put into the bin and the resident hasn't paid for this service, the bin won't be emptied and a tag attached providing information on how to subscribe to the garden waste service. The resident will then need to dispose of the garden waste themselves such as composting it or taking it to one of our household waste recycling centres.

Please contact your landlord or housing association to ask if they will provide a permit or if you have to purchase one.

Residents who don't want to purchase a permit can either dispose of their garden waste at one of our household waste recycling centres or can compost it in their garden. Visit the Zero Waste Scotland website for information on composting.

You can also place garden waste into your general waste bin, which is collected every three weeks.

There are no discounts or exemptions available. 

The normal assisted collection service will continue for food waste collections. If residents who receive the assisted collection service still wish their garden waste to be collected they must purchase a permit. 

You can report a missed bin online. 

Residents who currently share a bin for their food and/or garden waste in flats can continue to do this for garden waste as long as one of the residents applies and pays for the permit. 

Please note - the application and payment for a permit must be made by one resident. We won’t become involved in any neighbour dispute over payment to another neighbour.  

If a resident employs the services of a gardener the waste is classified as commercial waste. The gardener must take this away with them after finishing their work and dispose of this as commercially generated waste.

Councils who have already introduced this charge have found no evidence to suggest that fly tipping of garden waste has increased as a result. The disposal of garden waste is the householder's responsibility and residents can continue to dispose of this free of charge at a household waste recycling centre. 

There will be no discount depending on the time of year when you sign up to the scheme. If existing residents or new residents choose to join the scheme part-way through the year the charge will still be the full cost of the permit. 

The permit is issued for the household only, not to a named individual, and isn't transferable. 

• Flowers  
• Plants  
• Grass cuttings  
• Shrub/Hedge clippings  
• Leaves  
• Weeds (not invasive plants like Japanese Knotweed)  
• Small twigs/Branches  
• Straw  
• Food waste  

No, the charge is discretionary. It will be your own decision if you wish to purchase a permit to have your garden bin emptied.