Recycling and Sustainability at Gardening London

Gardening London is committed to a measurable, city-focused approach to Recycling and Sustainability. Our ambition is to reach a 65% recycling percentage target across our operational waste streams by 2028, reducing landfill dependence and cutting carbon emissions from site activity. This page outlines how our garden recycling work, partnerships with local organisations, and low-carbon fleet investments combine to meet that goal.

Central to our sustainable gardening philosophy is practical recycling & sustainability on the ground. We prioritise on-site segregation of green waste, reuse of clean soils and bricks, and the recovery of wood and plant material for chipping and composting. Garden recycling isn’t just about disposing of waste responsibly — it’s about turning garden by-products into resources for urban soil health and community green spaces.

Many London boroughs have established approaches to waste separation that we align with: separate collections for food and garden organics, clear-linking of plastics, glass and paper streams, and communal garden waste schemes in boroughs such as Camden, Hackney and Lambeth. We work with local civic waste teams to ensure our collections complement municipal systems and that recycled outputs meet the quality standards borough transfer stations expect.

Local transfer stations and material flow

We route collected green waste and recyclable materials through designated local transfer stations serving north, south, east and west London. Transfer stations act as consolidation points where materials are sorted, baled or pre-processed before being sent to specialist processors — composting sites, woodchippers, or recycling plants. By consolidating at nearby stations we reduce haul distances and lower mileage per tonne of material moved.

Our practical recycling activity includes on-site segregation for: separate green waste containers, dedicated bins for plastic pots and trays, and secure storage for timber and metal recovered from landscaping works. This reduces cross-contamination and improves the yield of usable compost and mulch returned to local parks and community gardens.

To be explicit about flows: garden arisings are either composted locally, chipped for mulch, or passed to reclamation partners when suitable. Soil and inert materials are managed at municipal transfer hubs where they are graded and, where possible, reused in construction or landscaping projects within the city, reducing the need for virgin aggregate.

Partnerships with charities and community schemes

We maintain active partnerships with charities and social enterprises to maximise reuse. Through collaborations with community gardens, urban farms and redistribution charities we divert usable plant material, topsoil, and intact pots to projects that benefit local residents. These partnerships help establish circular flows — surplus compost and reclaimed materials support food-growing initiatives and training programmes.

Our charity partners help ensure that high-quality recycled outputs are put to social and environmental use rather than being lost to waste streams. We work with groups that accept clean plant stock, shelving materials for community allotments, and soil amendments for youth gardening projects. This is not only sustainable recycling in practice but also strengthens local resilience.

Integrating sustainable recycling into operations means investing in people, processes and cleaner transport. We have committed to a phased roll-out of low-carbon vans across our fleet: electric vans for inner-city work, and hybrid or biofuel-capable vehicles for longer routes. Electrifying our fleet and optimising routing reduces emissions and noise in dense neighbourhoods, while rapid-charging infrastructure near transfer sites keeps downtime low.

Operationally, we monitor several key performance indicators to track progress toward our recycling percentage target: tonnes of green waste diverted from landfill, percentage of material processed into compost or mulch, vehicle miles per tonne, and percentage of collections arriving at transfer stations uncontaminated. Transparent reporting allows borough partners and community groups to see impact and collaborate on improvements.

Examples of recycling activity relevant to Gardening London include:

• Source-separated garden waste collections for composting
• Pot and tray recycling streams to capture rigid plastics
• Wood chipping and reuse as mulch or biomass feedstock
• Soil screening and reuse for landscaping projects
• Material donations to community gardens and educational projects

Our approach to recycling & sustainability is pragmatic: reduce what we take in, reuse what is viable, and recycle everything else to the highest quality output possible. By aligning with borough waste separation systems, using local transfer stations effectively, empowering charity partners, and investing in low-carbon vans, Gardening London aims to lead on garden recycling across the city. We continue to refine processes to reach — and exceed — our 65% recycling percentage target while supporting greener neighbourhoods and resilient community spaces.