Food waste

You can dispose of your food waste in your garden bin.

If you don't have a garden bin you should put your food waste in your black bin. You can use the caddy to collect food waste before transferring the contents into your garden bin.  Alternatively, you can put food waste directly into the garden bin if you choose not to use a caddy.

Using your food caddy

• Keep your food caddy in the kitchen and fill it with your food waste. 
• Empty your food waste caddy into your garden bin. You may want to wash your caddy before you re-use it.
• We will empty the garden waste bin once every two weeks as we do now. 
  We won't empty food waste caddies.

You can use your food waste caddy with compostable liners or leave the food loose in your caddy. Your caddy will come with an initial supply of compostable liners. You can buy more compostable liners from local supermarkets - look out for the standard number EN13432.

Multiple language guides to using your food caddy

• Arabic - using your food caddy (PDF, 1MB)
• Bulgarian - using your food caddy (PDF, 777KB)
• English - using your food caddy (PDF, 2MB)
• Polish - using your food caddy (PDF, 800KB)
• Portuguese - using your food caddy (PDF, 793KB)
• Romanian - using your food caddy (PDF, 769KB)
• Slovak - using your food caddy (PDF, 799KB)

Food waste you can put in your food caddy or garden bin

• compostable caddy liners - you can use them if you wish but you don't have to
• meat and fish  - raw and cooked, including bones 
• fruit and vegetables - raw and cooked including peelings
• uneaten food from your plates and dishes
• bread, cakes and pastries
• rice, pasta and beans
• dairy products and eggs
• tea bags, tea and coffee grounds 
• egg shells, stale bread and crusts
• leftover solid fats
• cat and dog food - and hay, straw and wood shavings (not used for pet bedding.)
• Stones from fruit - for example prune stones

What not to add to your food or garden waste

• don't add packaging of any sort
• don't add plastic bags or nappy bags (don't use them as liners)
• don't add cardboard or paper
• don't add foil or food wrap
• don't add liquid
• don't add solid and garden rubble
• don't add coffee filters
• don't add biodegradable face wipes
• don't add cat litter or animal waste
• don't add wax or waxed packaging (milk or juice cartons)

You can see where to dispose of waste on our what waste goes where page.

Size of the food caddy

The bin measures - width 252mm, depth 229mm, height 234mm and has 7 litres capacity. It is a little bin that is designed to sit on your kitchen worktop or under the sink.

You can put your food waste directly into your existing garden waste bin if you don't want to use the caddy.

What happens to your food and garden waste

• We collect your food and garden waste from your garden bin at the kerbside every 2 weeks. From January 2024 there will be a subscription service to collect your garden bin.
• We will take your food and garden waste to sealed tunnels which are temperature controlled to optimise the composting process
• We leave the material in the tunnels for about a week where it is pasteurised, killing any pathogens. Then we move the material to a 'maturation area' where we leave it for 8 weeks when it is ready to use as compost
• We transfer the compost off site for use in agriculture and horticulture. We have no plans to make the compost available to residents.

Home composting

Composting at home is a low cost and natural process. You can compost your kitchen and garden waste into nutrient rich food for your garden. Find out more on our home composting page.

Why we are collecting food waste

We are recycling food waste because this is a much more environmentally friendly way to manage this large waste stream. This material makes up around 40% of our black bin waste and we want to turn it into compost and stop sending it to an energy from waste plant.

Cheshire East Council is committed to reducing food waste wherever possible through its ‘Life with less food waste’ campaign, education and community events. Our food waste recycling service supports residents in disposing of any remaining food waste in a responsible and sustainable manner. This helps us in making Cheshire East a green and sustainable place to live and help meet new higher national recycling targets.

Contact Waste and Recycling

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Page last reviewed: 05 September 2023