Your brown food waste bin
Recycle your food waste with our weekly brown bin collection
Your brown food waste bin is picked up weekly, alternating with your green recycling bin one week and your black household waste bin the next. It may be collected separately from your wheeled bin but on the same day.
Use your small kitchen caddy to collect daily food waste and transfer it to your larger brown bin for collection. If you're part of the food waste for flats pilot, please transfer it to the communal bin provided.
The delivery time for a food waste bin or kitchen caddy is up to 20 days.
If your block of flats has a food waste bin in the communal bin store, you can now use the food waste recycling service.
What can you put in your food waste bin?
All your raw and cooked food waste leftovers including:
- Plate scrapings
- Teabags and coffee grounds
- Fruit and vegetables
- Meat and bones
- Eggshells
- Bread and pastries
- Fish
- Dairy
- Out of date food
Please remember to wrap food waste in paper or use compostable bags - see more information below.
What can’t you put in your food waste bin?
- Packaging
- Plastic bags
- Glass
- Cat litter/animal faeces
Due to health and safety requirements, we are not able to collect food waste that is loose in the bin.
Why recycle your food waste?
Did you know that 60% of food waste comes from UK homes - creating 16 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually? Recycling your food waste isn’t just about tidying up your kitchen - it has real benefits for the environment, your community, and even your wallet.
Here’s why it matters:
By using a process called 'anaerobic digestion' we can turn food waste into renewable energy and a useful soil conditioner.
- Eastleigh's food waste will provide enough energy to power 214 homes each year
- Each lorry load of food waste will generate enough energy to power your fridge for up to four years
- A single caddy load of food waste can generate enough electricity to toast eight slices of bread
- Recycling just one tea bag a day for a month can produce the energy to make another five cups
- Soil conditioner produced from broken down food waste improves the soil in local outdoor spaces like parks, farms and gardens
Food waste that is put into your black household waste bin does not get recycled. Instead, it goes to be incinerated, wasting this valuable resource.