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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 outdoor caddy to transfer it into for collection each week.
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 outdoor 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.
You will receive a free roll of kitchen caddy liners that should last you for a year. If you run out beforehand, or after a year, you can purchase your own.
We will be providing more information on the type of liner, nearer the launch of the new service.
Bagging your food waste will keep your bins cleaner and help reduce smells.
When the kitchen caddy is full, tie the liner and drop it in your outdoor caddy for collection every week. This has a lockable lid so you do not have to worry about animals or insects getting inside.
The kitchen caddy is small enough to be put in the dishwasher if you have one, or both caddies can be washed in the sink or outside with a hose after each emptying, or however frequently you wish.
Please visit Love Food Hate Waste for further information on waste reduction.
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.
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.
Composting is very energy intensive. 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. AD can operate in an enclosed environment. Therefore, the smell from an AD 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 fortnightly. 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.