What to do with
Food waste
Please note that recycling collections and facilities may be affected by the COVID-19 situation. Please check with your local authority for updates about services. Read more
Check if you can recycle food waste at home
Enter your postcode below to find out if your local authority offers a food waste collection.
How to recycle food waste
- If your local authority has given you a kitchen caddy to collect food waste, you can usually recycle any cooked or raw food scraps
- Make sure you remove all packaging from your food waste, especially plastic
The collected food waste can be treated in several ways. In some areas (where food and garden waste are mixed together) it is often commercially composted at a local facility. This compost is then used in agriculture, landscaping and horticulture. Where food waste is collected separately it is usually treated using a method called anaerobic digestion, which produces green electricity.
Which items of food can be recycled
| All uneaten food and plate scrapings | Non-food products including nappies |
| Tea bags and coffee grounds | Packaging of any kind |
| Out of date or mouldy food | Any material that is not food waste |
| Raw and cooked meat, including bones | Liquids such as milk - these may leak causing spillages when transporting the food waste |
| Raw and cooked fish, including bones | |
| Dairy products such as cheese | |
| Eggs and egg shell | |
| Rice, pasta, beans | |
| Baked goods such as bread, cakes and pastries | |
| Fruit and vegetables including raw and cooked vegetables and peelings |
How food waste is recycled using the anaerobic digestion method
How food waste is recycled using the in-vessel composting method
Other food waste uses
Make compost at home. You can add the following items of food waste to your home composting bin:
- Fruit and vegetable peelings, seeds and cores
- Tea bags
- Coffee grounds and filter papers
- Paper towels or tissues (not if they have touched meat)
- Egg shells
You cannot compost: cooked food, fish, meat or dairy products.
How to combine a food waste collection and home composting
To ensure that you recycle as much of your food waste as possible, both methods work effectively together.
- Meat, fish and dairy products together with any cooked food can be put into your food waste collection and must not be composted at home as they may attract unwanted visitors to your garden
- All fruit and vegetable peelings can be composted at home