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Food waste
From June 2026 you’ll benefit from weekly food waste collections.
We’ll send you a kitchen caddy to collect your food waste, and a larger caddy with a lockable lid to transfer it into for collection each week.
5L Indoor caddy: approximately 27cm x 19cm x 20cm
23L Outdoor caddy: approximately 40cm x 36cm x 32cm
You’ll also receive a year’s supply of caddy liners, for free.
What goes in the new food waste caddy
All food waste. It can be cooked or uncooked, meat or vegetables, tea bags, eggshells, bones, fruit. The only things we can’t take are liquids and oils.
Even if you don’t produce much food waste, no amount is too small. Things like teabags, eggshells, coffee grounds and bones can all be included.
When its full your kitchen caddy can be emptied into your larger caddy, which is put out for weekly collection.
Tips for food caddies
Your new indoor food caddy is the ideal size to pop in any food waste such as banana skins, food scrapings, vegetable peelings or bones and can be easily stored out of sight under your kitchen sink.
Caddy liners
We’re providing a year’s supply of caddy liners to help residents get started with their smaller kitchen food caddies.
Why use caddy liners
- keeps it clean: Food waste stays in the bag, reducing spills and smells
- makes recycling easier: Simply tie the bag and place it in the larger caddy for collection
- saves time: Less need to wash your caddies, as the food is contained
Using caddy liners
The liners are designed to fit your caddies, but you can use any type of bag if you prefer.
You can reuse plastic bags from bread or vegetables, although they may not fit as snugly.
If you choose not to use liners, you’ll just need to wash your caddies occasionally.
Why it beats the black bin (even if you’re not thinking about the planet)
- less smell: Food waste sitting in your black bin for two weeks means bad odours. Weekly collections keep things fresher
- fewer maggots: Sealed liners, lockable caddies and faster collection means less chance for pests
- cleaner bins: No loose food scraps leaking or sticking means much less washing
What happens to caddy liners
When food waste reaches the anaerobic digester, all bags, including biodegradable and compostable ones are removed at the start of the process.
They are then sent for energy production, which is why it doesn’t matter what type of bag you use.
Used cooking oil
Used cooking oil, such as you might use in a deep-fat fryer, can’t go in the food waste caddy. This is because it is likely to spill out of the caddy liner and get into the machinery of the collection vehicle, or spill onto the road and members of our collection crew. It can also solidify at the digester and clog the machinery in the same way it can block drains.
Cooking oil should be allowed to cool, poured back into its bottle and either used again or put into the black bin in the bottle. The very best thing to do with used cooking oil, once you’ve used it as much as you can, is to save it for your next trip to the recycling centre. You can safely tip it into the used cooking oil container where it can be recycled into fuel. If you are getting rid of a small amount of oil, and it can’t be used again, wipe the pan with some kitchen towel and put the oily towel in your rubbish bin.
Waste liquids
Liquids can’t go in the food waste caddy because they can leak on the collection vehicle, the road and our collection crew. This could cause people to slip or it might contribute to clogging the machinery of the vehicle or digester. Liquids can generally be poured down the drain, but liquids containing fats, like gravy, should be put in a container and then in the black bin.
Why it’s good to recycle food waste
Recycling food waste is beneficial for the environment. It reduces greenhouse gas emissions, produces valuable resources like compost and biogas, and can lower disposal costs.
Removing food waste from black sacks will also mean less rubbish is going to landfill.
Please visit Love Food Hate Waste for further information on waste reduction.
Where food waste goes when it’s collected
The food waste is taken to an anaerobic digester. Anaerobic digestion is a natural process where microorganisms break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen, producing biogas (a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide) and digestate. The biogas can be used for heat and electricity generation, while the digestate can be used as a nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Why we can't collect food waste in the green lidded bin anymore
From 1 June 2026, your green lidded bin will only be used for garden waste, like grass clippings, leaves and small branches. This will be collected for composting.
The current system of In Vessel Composting (IVC) used for mixed food and garden waste in the green lidded bin is both expensive and no longer the best way of handling food waste. Sending food waste for anaerobic digestion and garden waste for traditional open composing is much more effective and produces better results.
AD produces biogas, which can be used to generate heat and power. In contrast, IVC uses more energy for aeration and turning and does not produce usable energy. Large fans are required to aerate compost and power odour control systems, and heavy machinery is needed to turn and move compost. These are expensive financially and environmentally.
Composting food waste in IVCs can lead to odours. Anaerobic digestion can operate in an enclosed environment. Therefore, the smell from an anaerobic digestion plant is generally significantly less than a compost site.
The Government have put in place legislation requiring food waste to be collected weekly by local authorities. The Council did consider continuing to collect food and garden in the green lidded bin and change the frequency of collection to weekly. This proved a very expensive option as we would need to buy more of the larger collection vehicles currently used to empty the green lidded bins. By separating food waste, we can use smaller vehicles, which are less expensive and use less fuel.
That’s why it’s important not to put food waste in the garden bin from 1 June 2026.
Extra food waste
An extra food waste recycling bin can be provided for families that meet the extra black bin capacity criteria, however, before issuing, we will provide advice on minimising food waste.