BATTERIES

Kitchen and Green Garden Waste

What types of kitchen food and green garden waste can be recycled?

Composting is nature’s own way of recycling. Insects, bugs and other soil organisms break down organic material, such as plant waste from your garden or vegetable food waste from your kitchen, to produce rich fertiliser that's great for plants.

If this waste is not recycled and composted it will go into landfill where it becomes a source of methane – a powerful greenhouse gas (20 times more powerful than CO2) linked to global warming and climate change. By composting at home or through your local collector you are also helping to preserve valuable natural peat sources. The composting of green waste is also an essential part of organic and wildlife gardening and encouraging home and community composting can increase local biodiversity.

Things you can compost at home:

• Fruit and vegetable scraps

• Tea bags and coffee grounds

• Old flowers and bedding plants

• Hedge clippings and weeds

• Gerbil, hamster and rabbit bedding

• Egg boxes and egg shells

• Grass cuttings

• Cardboard and newspaper in small quantities

• Leaves in small quantities

Things you shouldn’t compost at home:

• Cooked food waste *

• Meat *

• Fish *

• Cat litter and dog faeces

• Glossy magazines

* Possible to compost these items with some composters.

How to recycle kitchen and green garden waste

To compost your kitchen and garden waste at home build your own compost heap or purchase a compost bin or wormery.

Composting home page

Green garden waste recycling services

You can also usually take your green garden waste to your local Reuse and Recycling Centre. Check out if your area offers a green waste recycling service.

Kitchen food waste recycling services

Some of areas also collect food waste from homes for composting. This may be collected with your green garden waste or as a separate collection. If your area provides this service they will provide you with a small kitchen bin to collect your food scraps such as tea bags, fruit and vegetable peelings and cut flowers. In some areas they also collect cooked and uncooked food waste including meat, which is sent to a special enclosed composting facility. By recycling your kitchen food waste you’ll be amazed at the reduction in your normal waste.

Three easy steps to recycling your food and garden waste

• Find out what is on offer in your local area

• Separate your green garden waste and/or your kitchen food waste from your other rubbish so that it is ready to be composted at home or recycled by your area collection/centre.

• If you are composting at home you can dig it into you garden soil, or sieve it and use for your pot plants as a fertiliser. Not only will it fertilise your soil, but it will also help retain moisture and restrict weed growth if you use it as a mulch on the surface of the soil. Sit back and watch your plants grow!

Did you know?

• around 30% of household waste is organic and can be recycled.