Food waste recycling

Recycling food waste is easy and plays an important part in making our borough a greener, healthier place for everyone.

Your food waste gets turned into a gas called biomethane for generating electricity. By recycling just one banana peel, you can generate enough power to fully charge your phone. It’s also used as compost for parks and green spaces. Around 70% of the UK’s wasted food comes from our homes.

If we all recycled our food waste, we could make a huge difference.

Often people waste more food than they think. The average family throws out 241.2kg of food every year – roughly the weight of a male grizzly bear!

If you don’t have leftovers and eat all the food you buy, that’s brilliant. But, in many cases, we produce unavoidable food waste, such as used tea bags, fruit skins, and eggshells. By recycling this food waste properly, you can play your part in creating a greener, healthier Islington.

One of the reasons why some people don’t recycle their food waste is the "yuck factor", with people worrying about leaks and spills. 

But the process of scraping your food into your caddy is the same as putting it into your general rubbish bin, plus you can empty it more regularly. The compostable bags that we provide, and that many supermarkets stock, are strong and, if filled correctly, won’t split. Remember that the compostable bags will break down over time, so pick up one roll at a time!

In addition, recycling your food waste often creates fewer smells and is more hygienic than putting it in your general rubbish bin. That’s because the small indoor caddy can be emptied more regularly, keeping bad smells out of your home. By putting a thin layer of newspaper or compostable bag inside the caddy, you can keep it clean and odour-free.

We collect it, using one of the vehicles from our fleet – many of which are electric. It's then taken to what’s called an "anaerobic digestion" facility. That's the name for a process in which your food waste is broken down in an oxygen-tight container. Once it's been there for around two-and-a-half months, the food turns into a gas called biomethane, which can be used to generate electricity. 

What's left of the food in the oxygen-tight container is squeezed dry, and transformed into a rich fertiliser that’s used on agricultural land.

In the UK, 70% of all food waste is generated by citizens in their own homes. Of the 6.6 million tonnes of food thrown away by UK households, 4.5 million tonnes could have been eaten. So, as well as recycling our food waste, we can all make a difference by reducing the overall amount that we waste.

Visit Eat Like A Londoner for tips on how you can make your food last for longer and for recipes using leftovers.