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Food waste bin

Information about what you can and can't put in your food bin

Your food waste bin

You'll have a:

  • 23-litre grey food waste bin for outdoor use, and a
  • 7-litre kitchen caddy (you can use this to transfer food waste from your kitchen into the outdoor bin)

You should only put the larger bin out for collection.

Your food waste will be collected every week. Please place the bin next to your black or green bin (whichever is due to be emptied) at the edge of your property on collection day. To find out when your bins will be collected, please visit our collection dates page.

We start our collections at 7:00am. So you must put your bin out at the boundary of your property before 7:00am, but after 7:00pm the previous evening. Please make sure it's visible to our crew.

After your bin has been emptied, please return it back onto your property by the end of the collection day. If you leave it out on the pavement, it may become a nuisance to people in the area.

What you can put in your food waste bin

The food waste bin is for all food products. The following are examples you may put in:

  • cooked food
  • vegetable peelings
  • leftover pet food
  • tea bags and coffee grounds
  • egg shells
  • bones and shellfish
  • fruit cores and peel
  • dairy products

What you can't put in your food waste bin

Please do not put the following items in the food bin:

  • any packaging (unless you're using it to line your caddy; see below*)
  • non food products
  • runny oils or fats (these can be taken to your nearest household recycling centre or disposed of in your black bin)
  • pet waste (this should be wrapped and disposed of in your black bin).

Lining your food waste bin*

It's important that food waste is wrapped or placed in a bag when putting it into the outdoor bin. This helps to prevent food waste from sticking to the caddies, making them cleaner and easier to empty.

Recent technological changes to the way our food waste is processed means that plastic bags can now be stripped out and used to generate electricity. This in turn means it's now easier to wrap your food waste, and to line your caddies in order to keep them spotless and hygienic. You can use any plastic bag such as:

  • plastic carrier bags
  • old fruit or vegetable bags
  • cereal box liners
  • any polythene bags
  • newspaper

Or you can continue to use any compostable bags you may have.

Bins that contain food waste that has not been wrapped or placed in a bag may not be emptied by the collection crews.

Please note, as there is no longer a requirement to use compostable caddy liners, we will not be stocking them for sale.

What happens to your food waste?

On collection day our crews collect your food bin with either your green or black bin.

Don't be alarmed if you see our crews emptying your food bin into a larger bin, and then see this being tipped into the bin vehicle, alongside other waste. The vehicles our crews use have separate compartments for the food, recycling and waste. To make the job quicker, our crews empty the contents of several food bins into one larger bin. And then empty this into the food compartment on the vehicle.

About the scheme

We aim to recycle as much as possible. The food waste service was introduced in April 2013 to help residents increase our levels of recycling. It was estimated that as much as 1/3 of the weight of each household's black bin waste was made up of food waste. This was going to landfill, where it was responsible for creating methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Order a bin

If you don't have a food waste bin, you can order one on our new or replacement bins page.

Reducing food waste

You can save money and reduce waste by being smart with your food. You can find out more on our reducing food waste page.