Recycle your food waste
Keeping food waste out of landfill is one of the best things you can do to help the environment. When food decomposes it creates methane and other greenhouse gases, which harm the environment and speed up global warming. Recycling also helps keep the costs of waste disposal down so that the council has more money to spend on the things that matter to residents and communities.
Ways to recycle food waste
You can recycle your food waste by putting it:
- in a compostable food waste bag
- loose into your food waste box
If you are not using a compostable food waste bags, you may find it helpful to place a layer of newspaper, grass or leaves at the bottom of the bin first, as this can help to prevent the food waste from sticking. You may also wish to rinse out the bin with a jug of warm water after it has been emptied by our crews.
Please make sure that you only use compostable food waste bags as directed below, as your bin will not be emptied if it contains the wrong type of bag or materials.
Accepted food waste bags
Food waste bags between 5 litres and 10 litres in capacity should fit comfortably into the indoor kitchen caddy container that we provide.
Any brand of bags that carries the 'compostable' logo will be suitable. The logo should be shown on every bag, not just the packaging to ensure that the bags can be composted.
'Degradable' or 'biodegradable' bags are not accepted unless they have a 'compostable' logo. This is because these bags are usually still made of plastic, which breaks down into smaller pieces but does not compost contaminating the loads that we collect. Compostable bags are made from natural plant based material, such as corn starch.
If the bags are not marked with this logo then please do not use them for your food waste.
Where to buy food waste bags
Food waste bags can be purchased from most supermarkets in the same aisle as bin liners, or from a wide variety of online retailers.
Page last updated: 28 November 2019
