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To provide residents with an easy to use, safe and hygienic method for recycling food waste, residents will receive both a food caddy and a food waste bin. The food caddy is conveniently designed to be stored inside your house and used to transfer the food waste to the larger bin, which can be stored outside your property. The caddy has a wide top so food can be scraped easily from your plate into it. The larger food waste bin has a lockable lid to secure it and will be collected weekly on the same day as your recycling boxes.
Please ensure you remove all packaging from food waste, especially plastic.
All food waste, cooked and uncooked, can be put in the food waste bin, for example, meat and fish (including bones), dairy products, bread, fruit and vegetables. Residents who home compost can use this service to collect food they cannot compost, such as cooked food, meat and fish.
To lock your bin simply swing the handle over the bin to the front.
Yes Please | No thanks |
| Uncooked food Cooked food Tea bags Veg peelings Bones | Plastic bag liners Packaging Liquids/Oils Garden Waste Cardboard |
To ensure your food waste is collected, please leave your food waste:
- Out for collection on the same day as your recycling boxes.
- Out by 6am. The collections start early and pick up times may vary
- At the edge of your property, by the pavement. We cannot collect it if it is in a porch, side access, or behind a wall
- Out for collection in the large storage bin, not in the small food caddy, as the caddy is not securable against animals
Please do not use a plastic bag as a liner. Plastic cannot be composted.
Keeping your caddy and bin clean and reducing smell
- Try not to put too much liquid in with the food.
- Keep the bin out of direct sunlight until collection day.
- Try using liners; they can make the storage and transfer of waste food tidier and more convenient.
Lining your Food Waste Caddy
Special compostable sacks/corn starch liners
These liners are made of cornstarch (GM free). They resemble a plastic bag but will compost completely. These liners will help you to transfer the food and keep in smells, they will also help to keep your bin and caddy clean. You do not need to use them however, as you can use newspaper or nothing at all.
Liners are available from TOR2 and the Household Waste Recycling Centre (Tor Park Road) in rolls of 25. When purchasing liners from other sources ensure they are marked with one of the logos which certify that products are 100% compostable and meet the applicable EU composting standard (EN13432).
Do not use plastic bags to line your bin, as they are not compostable, even bio-degrabable plastic bags, as these do not break down quickly enough and would end up in the resultant soil conditioner product.
Newspaper as a degradable liner
You do not have to use any liner at all, but newspaper makes a great free compostable liner or wrapper. Either line your bin or caddy with one sheet of newspaper, or wrap food in a sheet of newspaper (like you do with fish and chips) and place it in your storage bin. This helps to keep the bin cleaner and the newspaper will be composted with the food waste.
Why Recycle Food Waste
Recycling food waste is as important as recycling other household rubbish such as glass, cans and paper. When organic waste is deposited in landfill it biodegrades and has serious environmental consequences. For example:
- Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is released into the atmosphere, which significantly contributes to global warming
- A liquid leachate is also produced that can pollute groundwater and water courses, damaging the plants and animals that live there
Disposing of waste via landfill is unsustainable and space is running out. In addition, for biodegradable waste, fines have been implemented through the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) and a fine is imposed for every tonne of biodegradable waste sent to landfill in excess of a Local Authority’s allocated allowance. If Torbay does not change the way waste is managed in the Bay, it faces fines of around £27 million by the year 2020 (as stated in the Municipal Waste management Strategy for Torbay - 2008 – 2025).
By separating your food waste and not putting it in your normal rubbish sacks, you will reduce the amount going to landfill.
It could also save you money…
The government-funded organisation, Waste and Resources Programme (WRAP) has found that we throw away 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink every year in the UK, the majority of which could have been eaten. WRAP also states that if households stopped wasting the food that could have been eaten they could save up to £50 a month and if everyone in the UK did it, it would have the carbon impact of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road.
May Gurney (one of the joint venture companies of TOR2) has found that by simply implementing a food waste collection scheme like the one in Torbay it can actually help residents realise the amount of food they are wasting and as a consequence change their behaviour to waste less. This can result in a saving to households of at least £100 a year!
Related Documents
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Your recycling and waste collection services from TOR2.
Detailed information about your recycling and residual waste collections for residents living in a house or a block of flats with less than 12 units.
Last updated: 17/05/2012, 10:23am (1.1 MB)
Contact Customer Call Centre
- Tel: 01803 207900
- Email: connections@torbay.gov.uk
- Fax: N/A
