Your silver food waste caddy
Silver food waste caddy collection
- Use your indoor kitchen caddy to put food waste in, then empty the contents of your indoor caddy into your silver outdoor caddy.
- This caddy is the property of Cherwell District Council and should only be used for food waste. Please do not use this caddy to store items of value or any items which you do not want to dispose of. In the event that a caddy containing personal or valuable items is emptied, Cherwell District Council cannot be held responsible for the loss of these.
- You can put your larger silver outdoor caddy out weekly for collection along with either your blue recycling bin, brown garden bin or green rubbish bin.
Your outdoor food waste caddy collection day
Collections are made by our in-house collection team Tuesday to Friday, any time between 7:00am and 5:00pm.
Please make sure your caddy is at the right place by 7:00am and remember to bring your caddy back to your own property as soon as you can after collection. Take care not to leave bags or open receptacles out days before a waste collection as this is likely to attract vermin like foxes and rats. Any complaints received of caddies permanently left out in a public area will be investigated and may be removed.
We operate an alternate week collection system, where the rubbish bins are collected one week and the recycling and garden waste bins collected the following week. Food waste caddies are collected every week.
Your silver outdoor caddy should be placed at the edge of your property by 7am on the scheduled collection day. When presenting your caddy for collection, please be mindful not to cause an obstruction to others, particularly for wheelchair users or buggies. Ensure it can be easily seen by the collection crew and not hidden by other bins and/or vehicles.
Remember to lock your outdoor food caddy to avoid any waste escaping.
Please do not place your indoor caddy out for collection.
Bin collection search and calendar
Help putting out your caddy
As we already offer an assisted collection service to collect bins from a more convenient place for our elderly and disabled residents, the service will also apply to weekly food waste collection.
If you are currently registered for the wheeled bin assisted collection service, then this will still continue as part of the weekly caddy food collection service and you do not need to contact us.
If you would like to enquire about setting up a new assisted collection, please telephone our customer service team on 01295 227003 or contact us by email.
Using your silver food waste caddies
You can use your kitchen caddy to easily dispose of various types of food waste. It can be lined with a compostable bag or newspaper. When full, empty the contents into your outside food waste caddy. Lock the lid by closing it and moving the handle forward, the same way you lock your indoor caddy.
To keep your caddies clean you can use old newspaper in the bottom after it has been emptied to soak up any liquids. It will fall out when the caddy is next emptied and will be composted along with the rest of the contents. You may also want to clean your caddies with soapy water from time to time.
We only provide one indoor and one outdoor caddy for each household. There is only one size for indoor and one size for outdoor caddies.
Caddy liners
Compostable liners can be bought from supermarkets, discount stores, DIY stores and garden centres. Please only buy compostable bags that are labelled for commercial or industrial composting only and may display the 'seedling' logo (on the left). Bags marked for home composting are not suitable.
Cleaning your caddies
You can also use old newspaper in the bottom of the silver outdoor caddy after it has been emptied to soak up any liquids which will fall out when the caddy is next emptied. You may want to clean your caddy with soapy water.
Replacing a caddy
All bins are property of the council. We repair broken bins free of charge (or replace them if they cannot be fixed).
Find out about replacing a caddy
What to put in your silver food waste caddy
The most common items you can place in your caddy are:
- Tea bags and coffee grounds
- Leftovers
- Bread, cakes and pastries
- Rice, pasta and beans
- Vegetables and fruit
- Out of date or mouldy food (no packaging)
- Meat and fish – raw or cooked, including bones
- All dairy products such as cheese or eggs
- Pet food
What not to put in your silver food waste caddy
- Food packaging
- Plastic bin liner bags
- Glass bottles and jars
- Lots of liquids (e.g. milk)
- Cling film and carrier bags
If you are unsure, then search for it using our Waste Wizard.
Residents living in flats
Due to the logistics of flats, we would ask that you contact your Managing Agent or Landlord and discuss the practicalities of food waste storage and collections with them first, as this may affect other residents in your building and there may also be limited space. We are happy to provide indoor and outdoor food waste caddies/bins, however we ask that your Managing Agent or Landlord contacts us to make the arrangements.
View advice for residents in flats
Why separate my food waste?
Cherwell residents already recycle 2,500 tonnes of their food waste in the brown bin which is 25% of the food waste thrown away per year in Cherwell. With this new weekly service we are supporting residents to recycle the other 7,500 tonnes that is currently thrown away
Recycling food is:
- Easy to do
- Collected weekly
- Reducing the waste filling up your green rubbish bin
- Reducing your carbon footprint, which is good for the environment
- Saving money
Watch food waste recycling video
What happens to your waste?
Food waste is taken to an anaerobic digester where it is broken down by bacteria, as it would be in our stomachs. The anaerobic digester turns the problem of food waste into two valuable resources: bio-fertilisers that help our farmers enrich the UK's soils and green electricity to power our local homes and businesses. Electricity generated by food waste collected from Cherwell households could run 9,000 fridge-freezers, or power a TV in every household in the districts for 15 hours a week.
Learn more about how we recycle food waste
Home composting
Home composting is a great way to recycle fruit and vegetables waste if you have a garden. You can recycle food waste that’s not suitable to home composting in your weekly food waste collection including cooked or raw meat, fish and dairy.