Get ? Gardener: Recycling and Sustainability Commitment

Get ? Gardener is committed to helping local communities reduce waste and build greener streets, parks and private gardens. Our sustainability page sets out clear targets, explains how we work with borough recycling schemes, lists our local transfer station partners and outlines the practical steps we take every day. We combine service excellence with environmental responsibility: from collection to reuse, we aim for measurable progress.

We set a firm recycling percentage target: 75% of all green and garden waste diverted from landfill by 2028. This target covers organic material, woody debris, soil and reasonably clean inert material recovered through processing streams. The target complements borough-level policies that already prioritise separate garden and food waste collections and aligns with broader municipal waste reduction ambitions.

Many London boroughs and urban councils operate distinct collection systems. In areas where residents separate food, paper, glass and garden waste at source, our teams tailor collection and processing to match local rules. We support borough approaches to waste separation by providing clear guidance on what we accept for recycling: organic material for composting, branches for chipping, soil for screening and reusable items for charitable reuse.

We work closely with a network of local transfer stations and civic amenity sites to ensure materials enter the correct processing streams quickly and efficiently. These partnerships shorten transport distances, lower emissions and increase the proportion of material that can be composted or recovered. Using nearby transfer facilities also reduces congestion and turnaround times, allowing a higher rate of reuse.

Our relationships with transfer stations typically include joint audits, coordinated routing to avoid duplication and shared training on contamination reduction. By focusing on quality at the kerbside and at drop-off points, we maintain higher standards for compost feedstock and reduce rejection rates at processing facilities.

Partnerships with Charities and Community Projects

We actively partner with local charities, social enterprises and community gardens. These partnerships help direct reusable items — such as planters, hardscape materials and clean timber — to organisations that can give them a second life. Our charitable collaborations include:

• Community composting schemes that turn garden waste into soil improver for local allotments.
• Furniture and materials reuse charities that accept usable structures and pots for community projects.
• Employment and training charities that deliver workforce skills in green jobs using reclaimed materials.

Through these partnerships, we ensure that items which cannot be composted but are still useful avoid becoming waste. We operate a simple triage at collection: where possible, materials are diverted to charity partners, returned for reuse, or routed to processing networks for recycling.

Low-carbon fleet and operational measures

Our fleet is transitioning to low-carbon vans and vehicles. We already deploy electric and plug-in hybrid vans on many inner-borough routes and prioritise these vehicles where stop-start driving and short distances maximise benefits. Over the next three years we plan to replace high-emissions vehicles first and work toward a lower-carbon fleet overall.

Operational changes that accompany the low-carbon fleet include route optimisation to cut mileage, load consolidation to reduce trips, and driver training in eco-driving techniques. These steps reduce CO2 emissions and improve air quality in busy streets. We also evaluate lifecycle impacts: improving vehicle utilisation and maintaining equipment extends vehicle life and reduces embodied carbon.

When collections require transfer to specialist processors, we prioritise facilities with renewable energy or low-energy processing methods. For composting, we favour sites that manage odour and emissions responsibly and produce high-quality soil conditioner that can be returned to parks and councils, closing the loop on garden waste.

Materials we commonly divert include grass clippings, hedge trimmings, small branches, woody pruning, leaves, topsoil from garden clearances and many types of clean timber. We also handle plastic nursery pots and trays where local borough policies allow recycling or reuse. Waste separation at the street level—where boroughs ask residents to keep food, glass, paper and garden waste apart—greatly increases the efficiency and quality of each recycling stream.

We publish regular summaries of our recycling performance so clients and communities can see progress against the 75% diversion target. Our audits track tonnages by material type and destination: compost, chipper wood, reuse allocations to charities, and residual waste. This transparency helps everyone understand how small actions at collection and sorting make a measurable difference.

Across the boroughs we operate in, success depends on partnerships: residents who separate waste, councils who provide clear collection guidance, transfer station teams that prioritise recovery and local charities who put reused materials to work. Get ? Gardener positions itself as the logistical and operational partner that connects those dots.

In summary, our sustainability approach combines an ambitious recycling percentage target, smart use of local transfer stations, active partnerships with charities and a deliberate move to low-carbon vans and operational practices. By aligning with borough waste separation schemes and community initiatives, Get ?Gardener aims to turn garden waste into resources and jobs, not landfill.