Green bins

We’ll continue to collect 240 litre green-lidded bins for free, but from 1 June 2026, please only put garden waste in this bin. 

All food waste must be put in your new food waste caddy.  

Additional garden recycling  

Please note for safety and hygiene reasons, garden waste must always be contained within an East Cambridgeshire green or brown lidded bin, or brown sacks if you receive our alternative service.

To encourage residents to recycle more we have also removed the yearly subscription for an additional garden waste bin. This means from 1 April 2026, you can request an additional green bin free of charge, and those with an extra bin for garden waste will no longer be required to pay.  

We ask residents to only order a bin if they need it.  Our service is very busy preparing for the changes as well as delivering the existing services, and we must prioritise resources to deliver these only where there is a need.  

If you have additional garden waste and have not requested an additional bin, you will need to take this to your nearest household waste recycling centre. 

Why we can't collect food waste in the green bin

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 (AD) 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 waste in the green lidded bin and retain 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.