Get ready for food waste collections

Food waste bin delivery team member Peter (Credit: EBC)

Food waste collections start in Erewash from Monday 30th March 2026.

Here is everything you need to know.

You should already have received:

• A grey kitchen caddy (5 litres) for indoors.
• A green food waste bin with lockable lid (23 litres) to be emptied by the council’s crew
• An instruction leaflet.
• A roll of compostable liners for your grey kitchen caddy.
• A sticker so you can number your green food waste bin.

If you live in a flat, your bins will be provided later this year.

To start using your kitchen caddy, you can line it with a compostable liner (to help keep it clean), then use it for any food waste. You don’t have to use a liner; you can just place food items directly into the caddy if you prefer – please do not use plastic bags or newspaper as a liner.

The compostable liners are biodegradable, so let food cool down before putting it in the caddy and change the bag regularly.

When the caddy is almost full, tie the liner closed like you would with your household waste bin then place it into your outdoor green food waste bin.

If you don’t have space or prefer not to use your kitchen caddy, you can use your own container or just empty your food waste directly into the larger green food waste bin.

Food waste will be collected every week on the same day as your other waste and recycling, by a separate vehicle. There will not be changes to any other bins which includes the black rubbish bin, blue recycling bin and brown garden waste bin.

On your normal collection day, just put your food waste bin out alongside your other bins by 7am like usual. Make sure you turn the handle backwards to lock the lid and keep it secure – this will prevent animals getting in. You can watch our video for a full guide.

The caddy is a good place to put items like tea bags, vegetable peelings, bones, plate scrapings, uneaten pet food and more. Please don’t put in packaging of any kind, liquids, plastic bags or plastic film, household waste or garden waste. You can find the full list of items you can put in your grey caddy on the council’s Food Waste webpage.

Councillor Mark Alfrey, Lead Member for Environment said: “Wasting food not only wastes money, but also all the energy used in its production, processing, packaging and transportation. Just by putting your food waste into a different bin, it can be transformed into something useful like fertiliser for use in farming – rather than being sent to landfill or incinerated. In our borough of over 53,000 households, all the food waste mounts up. We encourage everyone to give the service a try.”

Simpler Recycling was introduced by the previous government as part of The Environment Act 2020 to standardise waste collection across England. The weekly food waste collections have been made statutory by the Government. Every council in England will have to collect food waste from households.