Roll out of food waste collections to all houses has started

Published: 02 November 2026 food waste truck

13,000 households across Redbridge are already benefiting from Redbridge Council’s  food waste collections, and by mid December all remaining houses across the borough will have the service too.

Over the next few weeks, we are adding more and more houses to our food waste collection rounds, and delivering food waste caddies to houses in preparation for them to join the service.

To find out when your food waste collections are due to start if you don’t already have it, head to https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/bins-waste-and-recycling/food-waste-collections/

The expansion of the service is an important step in our efforts to help residents reduce food waste, boost recycling rates, and help tackle climate change.

It’s also a legal requirement that all councils introduce a separate food waste collection. 

To help with this, central Government has given us funding to cover costs such as new collection vehicles, food waste containers and staffing for dedicated collection crews. 

If you’re new to food waste collections, it’s really easy to get started. Households under the service will receive a small kitchen caddy, and a larger outdoor caddy.

Use your smaller food caddy indoors for your food waste and when it gets full, just transfer the waste to the larger outdoor caddy, ready for your weekly collection. 

Both food caddies keep food odours in, and the larger outdoor caddy is lockable giving peace of mind that foxes and other creatures won’t be able to get to the waste inside. 

Users are advised to ensure the caddy lid is flush against the caddy when locking it so it is fully closed and secured.

What goes in your food waste caddies?

  • plate scrapings 
  • eggs and eggshells
  • cheese and other dairy foods
  • fruit and vegetables (raw or cooked)
  • bread, pastries, cakes and biscuits
  • meat and bones (raw or cooked)
  • fish and fish bones (raw or cooked)
  • rice, pasta and beans
  • tea bags and coffee grounds 

What happens to your food waste?

It’s taken to a local Anaerobic Digestion facility in Dagenham where it’s broken down to produce bio-gas, which generates electricity and heat. Your food waste is also converted into a bio-fertiliser to grow more food on farmland.

Redbridge Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Neighbourhoods, Cllr Jo Blackman, said: “One third of household waste collected in Redbridge is food waste. By recycling it separately, we can make a real difference to our environment and put food waste to better use. 13,000 homes are already part of our food waste collection service and so far more than 560 tonnes of food waste have been collected and processed through anaerobic digestion, generating enough renewable energy to heat around 56 average UK homes for a year. These achievements show the real difference residents are making by recycling their food waste, and I’d like to thank everyone who has taken part so far. With the roll-out of food waste collections to the remaining kerbside houses, we hope even more people will take advantage of the service, helping create a greener Redbridge.”

Flats are also due to join the service in a phased roll-out and we’ll be contacting flat owners directly, closer to when their food waste collections will start. We will assess each block of flats individually. For most flats, food waste will be collected using communal bins.