Your new recycling collection service

The Council are working to introduce collections of food waste over the next few years.

Food waste

Food waste makes up about a third of the contents of a typical waste bin.

At the moment, when this is collected in your general waste bin, it goes straight to landfill. Once there, it rots down producing methane gas - a cause of global warming. If we collect and recycle it instead, we can use it to make energy and compost.

We want to make changes to the way your food waste is collected so you can recycle more and we can process it in a more environmentally friendly way.

This new service will allow you to recycle all raw and cooked food waste including:

• Fruit and vegetables, including peelings
• Meat and fish, including bones and carcasses
• All dairy products, such as egg shells and cheese rind
• Bread, cakes and pastries
• Rice, pasta and beans
• Tea bags and coffee grinds
• Uneaten food from your plates and dishes

We would give you a 5 litre kitchen caddy in which to collect your food waste, a roll of liners to line the caddy and a 20 litre outside food waste bin for you to present your food waste for collection.

All you will need to do is put peelings and food waste from your plate into your lined kitchen caddy. Once this is full, the liner should be tied and placed into the kerbside food waste bin. This will be collected every week.

Won't the food in my bin smell / attract flies and vermin?

We currently collect your food waste fortnightly in your grey bin.

As we propose to collect your food waste weekly, your food waste should not have a chance to rot down and produce smells.

You can reduce the risk of smells by keeping the lid of your kitchen caddy closed, tying up the starch liners securely and emptying your kitchen food caddy regularly into the outside bin. Your outside food waste bin has a sealable and lockable lid which will stop smells getting out and pests/vermin getting in.

Isn't collecting food waste a health hazard / unhygienic?

We currently collect food waste that has been prepared in your kitchen or has been on your plate fortnightly in your grey bin where it does not pose any hazard to health. Our proposals to collect it weekly could be regarded as more hygienic that your current service. Food waste will be contained within a liner preventing spills and smells. The small size of both the kitchen caddy and the outside food waste bin make them very easy to rinse clean if necessary.

I don't think I have room for the new bins.

The kitchen caddy is designed to be kept on the kitchen work surface or under the sink and doesn't take up much room at all.

The outside food waste bin is designed to be kept outside and placed at the kerbside for collection on your specified day.

Should I still use my home compost bin?

If you have one, please continue to use your home compost bin to compost vegetable and fruit peelings, tea bags and your usual garden waste.

The food waste collection service accepts a range of materials that cannot go into a compost bin such as fish, meat and cooked food and will support your composting efforts.

Can I take my food waste to a Recycling Centre?

We do not have the facilities to deal with food waste at the Recycling Centres.

I don't produce food waste. I don't need this new service

Studies have shown that even people who don't waste any food still throw away on average around 88kg of food waste every year!

This service allows you to recycle not just edible food, but inedible items such as bones, peelings, teabags and food that has gone off.

Recycling your food waste is much more beneficial than throwing it in a landfill site. Even small amounts of food waste are worth recycling.