We provide a weekly food waste collection service for households in Peterborough.
As part of this service, each household should have two grey food bins, also known as 'caddies':
- One smaller caddy for keeping inside your home - where you can put your food waste
- A larger caddy for keeping outside - you empty your smaller caddy into the larger caddy and we then empty the larger caddy into our bin lorry
We provide all households with a supply of food bin liners to place inside the indoor grey food waste caddy.
We collect food waste weekly.
Did you know?
Last year, households in Peterborough recycled over 4,000 tonnes of their food waste. Let's work together to recycle even more.
Items you can put in your grey bin
- All uneaten food and plate scrapings - both cooked and uncooked
- Mouldy or out of date food
- Ready meals removed from their packaging
- Raw and cooked meat and fish - including bones
- Eggs and egg shells
- Tea bags and coffee grounds
- Fruit and vegetables - both raw and cooked - including peelings
- Bread, cakes, pastries and other baked goods
- Dairy products (not liquids)
- Pet food waste
- Cooking oil - allow it to cool first, pour into a plastic bottle no bigger than one litre, then put into the grey bin for collection
Items you cannot put in your grey bin
- Food packaging
- Glass bottles, jars, containers etc
- Liquids other than cooking oil
- Non-food products
Benefits of having a separate food waste bin
Last year, we disposed of almost 40,000 tonnes of household waste from black bin (general waste) collections. This waste went to the city's Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) in Fengate.
We estimate that almost one third of this was food waste, which could have been put in the grey (food waste) bins. Recycling food waste by putting it in your grey food bin is better for the environment and saves us around £870,000 a year in disposal costs.
Collected food waste is sent to an anaerobic digestion facility in Hertfordshire where it's turned into fertiliser for agriculture and biogas which is used to generate renewable electricity for homes.
Did you know?
Six recycled tea bags can produce enough electricity to boil a kettle to make another cup of tea.
Food bin liners for your grey bin
We provide residents with rolls of liners for use in the food waste bin / caddy. Each roll has 40 liners.
Once you've used up your roll, you can request another from us free of charge.
Let us know if you need a new roll by tying a liner or plastic bag to your caddy lid on collection day. Our Collection Crew will then provide you with a new roll when they empty your caddy. They'll remove the liner from your caddy lid to avoid another delivery the following week.
Please consider the environment when using the liners. We estimate that around three liners a week is reasonable and provide them to you free of charge on that basis.
We do not have an unlimited stock of liners so will monitor how many we deliver and where. We will not provide a single household with more than four rolls a year
Missed food bin collection
Please note we don't return to empty missed food bins due to it being a weekly service.
What to do with your food waste if you live in a flat
To comply with Government regulations, we must offer a food waste collection service to all flats in the city by March 2026. We will roll this out in stages from September 2024.
We are contacting management companies to make arrangements. If you would like to make an enquiry about the roll out, please email us at recycling@peterborough.gov.uk.
In the meantime, if your building doesn't receive a separate food waste collection service, please continue to put your food waste into the general waste communal bin.
Ideas for reducing your food waste
In addition to recycling our food waste, there are lots of things we can do to reduce the amount of food waste we produce.
Visit our reduce your food waste page for ideas and tips.