We use cookies to understand how you use our website, to remember your settings and improve our services. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. If you accept the cookies and then change your mind, you can remove them in your browser settings.
Bin
Types of waste

Food waste

sign into MyAccount to order a new food waste bin
find out what happens to your recycling

We collect food waste every week from houses. We are also introducing food waste recycling to properties with communal recycling areas by 31 March 2026. This is in line with the government’s ‘Simpler recycling’.

If you recycle food waste instead of putting it in your rubbish bin, it will get collected every week. It will help reduce smells and leave extra space in your black bin. 

Waste in your black bin costs £130 per tonne to treat and dispose of. Food waste brings money back into the council to help cover the cost of collections and save tax-payers money.

Did you know?

In an average year North Somerset recycles nearly 7,000 tonnes of food waste into renewable energy and crop fertiliser. It’s enough to power around 1,000 homes.

Households are given a small caddy for collecting food waste in the kitchen, and a larger container for putting it out for collection. Lock your caddy to stop the contents spilling out.

Line your food waste container with plastic bags, newspaper, kitchen roll or compostable liners. Please don’t put any plastic wrapping or loose food inside. Lining your containers is more hygienic and helps crews empty them quicker.

Put these items in your food waste container:

  • cooked and raw food including bones
  • dairy products
  • vegetables and fruits including peelings*
  • eggshells*
  • pet food
  • tea bags and coffee grounds*
  • solidified cooking oil (if you have liquid cooking oil, please take this to one of the recycling centres or put it in a container in your general waste)

*If you have space for a composter, you can home compost the food waste marked with a *. For more information please see our Composting webpage.

Did you know?

Around 7 million tonnes of food is thrown away by households in the UK every year. Over a year the average family throws away around £700 of food shopping, equivalent to an annual utility bill. 

Some waste is unavoidable, made up of things like peelings, cores and bones, but the majority is, or once was, perfectly good food.

To find out how to reduce food waste and save money, visit Love food hate waste website.

Biogas and electricity

By recycling your food waste in your food caddy, it is converted into biogas and used to generate electricity. 

It also creates a nutrient-rich digestate that can be used as a fertiliser for agriculture and in land regeneration. 

You can find out more information about what happens to North Somerset’s food waste by visiting the Codford Biogas website.

Codford Biogas - how we process food waste

Read our information leaflet on making recycling easier.