New campaign puts the focus on food waste

A campaign gets underway today (Monday 3 February) to try and boost the uptake of food waste collections across the district.

Our officers have been working with counterparts at Kent County Council on the project.

Over the next few weeks, ‘no food waste stickers’ will be placed on the black bins of properties that are suitable for food waste collections, encouraging residents to use their food caddies instead.

And in recognition of the fact that not everybody has an outdoor food caddy, these are being offered to residents at the discounted price of just £10.

These can be ordered on the website at that price for a limited period.

This project does not mean that people who continue to use their black bin for food waste will not get it emptied. Black bin collections will continue unchanged.

But we are hoping it will result in residents thinking about how they dispose of their food waste and changing their behaviour to improve recycling rates.

Food caddies are emptied weekly using a separate vehicle and are easy to rinse out and keep clean.

Residents can place any raw or cooked food in their caddy to be recycled, but not anything that is not solid food, such as oils, liquids or packaging of any sort.

The project has been funded jointly by us and KCC, and because recycling food uses less energy and is less costly than burning food waste mixed with general rubbish, the money spent on it should be recovered by lower disposal costs in the future. 

Find out more about the project by reading our answers to your key questions.

Published: 3 February 2025