Food waste collections
Free weekly food waste collections will be coming to Liverpool in a phased service rollout from September 2025.
Grey bin (food waste)
Yes please
- All uneaten food and plate scrapings
- Meat, including raw meat, cooked meat, and bones
- Fish, including raw fish, cooked fish and bones
- Dairy products such as cheese, eggs and eggshells
- Tea bags and coffee grounds
- Rice, pasta and beans
- Bread, cakes and pastries
- Vegetables and fruit, including peelings
No thanks
- Packaging of any kind
- Liquids such as milk
- Oil or any fat
- Any material that is not food waste
- Household waste
Will I get a collection?
Collections from around 15,000 properties across the city will start from 22nd September 2025.
The first food waste collections will be made from properties in some areas of Liverpool which include:
- Childwall
- Garston
- Fazakerley West
- West Derby
A phased rollout of this new service will then continue across the city.
Use our postcode look-up
Please use the postcode look-up below to check if we will collect food waste from your home.
What days will food waste be collected?
Food waste collections will be made every week on the days your blue and purple bins are collected. Check your bin collection schedule now.
How will I store food waste?
If your address is listed in the postcode look-up above, you will receive the following in August:
- an information pack
- a small indoor bin known as a 'caddy'
- a large outdoor caddy
- odourless liners
Not received a caddy?
If you live in an area where food waste collection has been rolled out, you will be sent a letter to tell you to expect delivery of your small and large caddies within three days.
If you do not receive your caddies within three days, please use the form below to request one or both caddies.
Run out of caddy liners?
If you’re coming to the end of your roll of liners, tie an empty liner to the handle of your outdoor caddy and we’ll restock them. If you still need liners, please use the form below.
View our video
FAQs
Food waste includes:
- All uneaten food and plate scrapings
- Baked goods such as bread, cakes and pastries
- Dairy products, eggs and eggshells
- Fruit and vegetables including raw and cooked vegetables and peelings
- Out-of-date or mouldy food
- Pet food
- Raw and cooked meat or fish, including bones
- Tea bags and coffee grounds
Not if you empty your kitchen caddy regularly into the outside food waste recycling bin and tie up the liners.
If you’re coming to the end of your roll of liners, tie an empty liner to the handle of your outdoor caddy and we’ll restock them. If you still need liners, please use the form below.
Food waste bins are called caddies. The dimensions of each are below.
- Inside 5 litre caddy to be kept in your property
Height 200mm x Depth 195mm x Width 265mm - Outside 23 litre caddy to be kept with your wheeled bins
Height 393mm x Depth 358mm x Width 325mm
As food waste is 70% water, sending food waste for incineration requires more energy to burn, so recycling is a more efficient method of disposal.
Your food waste is taken to an anaerobic digestion facility where it is used to generate natural forms of energy, such as biogas, an excellent alternative to fossil fuels and a fertiliser or soil conditioner which can be used in farming. This process uses microorganisms to break down food waste in the absence of oxygen, inside an enclosed system. As it breaks down it gives off methane, which is collected and converted into biogas and used to generate electricity, heat or transport fuels. It also creates a nutrient-rich digestate that can be used as a fertiliser for agriculture and in land regeneration.
No amount too small. The best thing we can do with our food is enjoy it, but some waste like banana skins, tea bags and bones are unavoidable and can all be recycled.
It will be a legal requirement for food waste to be collected separately. Recycling your food waste is better for the environment and will be used to generate natural forms of energy and fertiliser or soil conditioner which can be used in farming.
No. Our garden waste is composted out in the open using a method called 'windrow composting'. Food waste needs to be heat treated to make sure there are no pathogens that can be transferred to people or livestock. This is a more expensive method of treatment and windrow composting is a more environmentally friendly method of treating garden waste.
You’re already producing food waste, it’s going in your household waste bin, so this is just a different container. It’s important to reduce the amount of food waste going to disposal, food waste produces methane – a harmful greenhouse gas.
These changes are being brought forward by the UK government who consulted local authorities and businesses.