South Hams District Council has agreed that residents wanting to have garden waste collections should be charged £49 per year for the service from spring 2023, with the current service to end on 31 October 2022. 

Ahead of the South Hams’ waste and recycling service coming back in-house to be run by the SHDC again from 3 October, it wants to hear about area which have experienced particular problems with collections; by emailing

SHDC can withhold payment if the service hasn’t been delivered but that decision must be based on missed collections reported via SHDC’s website. Reports can be made the day after your collection was due and must be made within two working days of your scheduled collection. SHDC has asked that one missed collection is only reported once – reporting more than once will use extra SHDC resources but not speed up resolution.

For those who decide to not sign up for the service, they can take their garden waste to all three recycling centres in the South Hams. Full details, including opening hours, are available online here: www.devon.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling/centre

Alternatively, people can find out more on home composting possibilities here: www.recycledevon.org/in-the-garden/how-to-compost