What Can I Put In My Green Garden Bin?

In our gardens, we usually find some green recycling bins dedicated to putting waste inside them. But if one has been placed recently inside our garden, we might be confused to find out. And you ask yourself several times what can I put in my green garden bin? That’s the point, and that’s the question I am going to answer here.

So, please stick to this guide and we’ll know everything about what can and cannot go inside a green garden bin. Let’s not waste time and start the conversation!

What Is A Green Garden Bin?

The term green garden bin is very clear to most people. But if you hear something like this for the first time in your life, you must know what it really stands for. 

A green bin or a green garden bin is giant-sized. Still, moveable rigid plastic made or metal-made containers can keep that biodegradable waste inside. 

It can also keep that waste you use as a compostable material. 

However, it might also be used to keep that municipal solid waste if your local waste management authority recommends it. 

These bins are usually designed and manufactured by lots of companies in America. 

But the Norseman Environmental (also called ORBIS brand) comes at the top in North America.

The waste these recycling bins keep will end up in the landfills creating lots of hazards for your environment. That’s why it shall be used for recycling purposes. 

What Can I Really Put Inside My Green Garden Bin?

A green recycling bin or Garden Bin is highly known in our households to keep waste. But what type of waste is worth keeping inside these bins? Please have a look!

The items inside a green garden bin are collectively known as Organic waste. You can keep a lot of kitchen and yard waste inside it. It includes leaves, cooked and uncooked food items, garden waste such as tree trimmings, cuttings from grass, plants and flowers, etc. 

This all helps in creating composting inside the home!

So, these all things become a significant part of your green garden bin from where these can either be sent to the landfills. 

Or be used for multiple other purposes. Moreover, you can also read about recycle bin color codes as it will let you know what you can put inside each bin!

Can I Put Soil In My Garden Waste Bin?

Soil is not included in organic materials. But organic materials can be used to increase the productivity of the soil. 

Soil means dirt or trash. And that’s the rule with trash as it always ends up in landfills. 

So, you cannot keep the soil inside your green garden bin because you are not asked to do so in any situation!

Brief Explanation Of The Things You Can Keep Inside A Green Garden Bin:

Below, I am telling you exactly what type of materials or products shall go inside a green recycling bin. 

This will give you an idea of how you can treat your normal garden or yard waste and how you should fully dispose of it. 

Please have a look!

Yard Waste: 

Anything produced from your garden naturally or by cutting is called yard waste. 

This yard waste should be collected inside a green garden bin so that the recycling process shall always be easier. 

Yard waste, especially the waste we call green waste, includes the following items specifically!

Yard waste is included with branches of threes having up to 10 cm in length and almost 4 inches in thickness. 

• Bark
• Leaves of trees, both broken or fresh ones
• Flowers, either fresh ones or gloomy ones. 
• Plants of any kind that has been broken or trimmed
• Cuttings from the grass
• Dead plants of any kind
• Brush etc. 
• And everything which is produced from the yard or your garden shall go inside a green waste bin. 

Fruits And Vegetables: 

Fruits and vegetables, fresh or old, shall also be inside this green garden bin. 

If you bring some vegetables into the house and cannot keep them fresh because you have to go for a sudden trip, you can have them in a green garden bin. 

Because this will help you in other ways if not in cooking. 

Weeds And Other Material:

If you have any weed plants excluding the noxious ones, hedge pruning’s, those twigs, straw or the sawdust, material of bedding produced from the gerbils and hamsters, rabbits and pigs, and a lot of other stuff like that. 

Anything that comes inside the Organic Waste will likely be put inside a green recycling bin. 

How Do You Recycle Green Garden Bin Waste?

For sure, the waste collected either inside a black bin, a green bin, or even any recycling bin like blue has a purpose. 

The materials kept in these recycling bins are used for doing many things. 

But as far as the matter with the green garden bin is concerned, it is processed in two ways. These are given as follows. 

Green Waste Used For Composting:

People keep collecting and having a huge volume of this green waste in their houses for the sole purpose of composting. 

Most times, they are not allowed to have backyard composting. That’s why they apply this way of composting inside a green yard bin. 

This stuff is gathered for like months, and with proper oxygen, it decomposes. When fully decomposed, it creates a composter that helps improve the land’s fertility. 

You can use it as a fertilizer to outgrow some vegetables or fruits at your farmhouse or any garden you have dedicated for it.

Waste Collected By The Waste Collectors:

In a second way, your local waste collector picks up this green waste or anything kept inside a green recycling bin. 

They process this waste for other useful reasons and take this from you to their local recycling centers. 

Your waste management authority might have specific instructions for keeping the green waste. But generally, it includes the following directions for the housekeepers. 

• They instruct you to keep all those loose green waste materials inside a cart that is in green color and has a green lid on it. 

• Ensure all of these items in the green waste shall not include any dirt or debris. The soil shall not be added to this kind of waste in a recycling bin. 
• Call your local waste collectors and find out which is the most specific day for them to collect this green waste. Because after that, you have to prepare your green bin on that day. 
• There are no instructions that may influence you or ask you to put your green garden waste in trash bags. Because they are not allowed in this part. 
• Moreover, you also have to confirm that the lid of this recycling bin is fully closed and that the lid’s opening faces the street. 

These are common rules people must follow for sending green waste to recycling inside the USA. And if you live there, you probably have to do the same. 

What Items Your Green Garden Bin Cannot Include?

There is a truth that not everything comes in a single recycling bin. In the USA, a 3-colored cart system has been introduced in many towns or communities. 

There, people know exactly what to keep inside a specific recycling bin they are keeping or having in the street. 

But when it comes to not putting some specific item in a specific recycling bin, your green bin shall not include the following ones. 

• Tree stumps don’t go in a green bin. 
• Branches of trees are more than 5 feet in full length or have a diameter of almost 6 inches. Or they weigh more than 50 pounds and don’t really go inside a green garden bin. 

• You cannot keep soil in a green bin. 
• The dirt also ends up in landfills through the black bin, not the green bin. 
• Those used diapers are not part of organic waste. 
• Foam cups or other packing materials. 
• Animal waste or pet litters are also not part of green waste. 
• Concrete, Rocks, Asphalt, and other stuff like that also don’t go inside a green bin. 
• Painted or treated wood items or simply wood is not a part of the green recycling bin.
• Anything other than organic waste shall not be put in a green bin. 

Do I Have To Pay For A Green Bin?

If you live in a city in the USA, California, Toronto, Los Angles, etc., or anywhere else where the local waste management companies and government impose these recycling bins, you don’t have to pay for them. 

They do it by themselves and give you these recycling bins so that you can keep the yard waste organized. 

However, suppose any official inside your town does not facilitate you. In that case, you might have to buy a separate green waste bin for your garden so that you can keep yard stuff there. 

This may be done by spending some money. 

Final Thoughts:

A green garden bin is famous for organizing and protecting your yard or organic waste. You cannot keep trash or any non-organic materials inside it. Because there are other bins for these materials. So, I hope that you have got what you were looking for regarding what can I put in my green garden bin. But if you have something more to ask, you are most welcome. 

Just in case, thanks for being here. You can explore this website to know more about these recycling bins. Wishing you a happy day and lots of blessings. See you next time!

References:

1. Ladele, O., Baxter, J., van der Werf, P. and Gilliland, J.A., 2021. Familiarity breeds acceptance: Predictors of residents’ support for curbside food waste collection in a city with green bin and a city without. Waste Management, 131, pp.258-267.
2. US EPA (2018). Composting At Home | US EPA. [online] US EPA. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home.
3. Khalil, A., Domeizel, M. and Prudent, P., 2008. Monitoring of green waste composting process based on redox potential. Bioresource technology, 99(14), pp.6037-6045.