Each household has been provided with two food caddies:
- A small caddy to keep in your kitchen
Line your kitchen caddy with a compostable liner or newspaper. Once full, this should then be emptied into the larger caddy.
- A larger caddy to store outside
The larger caddy can also be lined with a compostable liner to help to keep it clean. This caddy is lockable to prevent it being opened by animals.
What goes in your food waste caddy?
Visit our food waste caddies webpage for information about what should and should not go in your food waste caddy.
Should I worry about smells or vermin?
Your food caddy has a lockable lid and is emptied weekly so there should be no problem with smells or vermin. Although your refuse bin is now being collected fortnightly, there should be very little waste going into this bin now and so there should be no problem with smells or vermin. Wrapping particularly smelly items such as nappies should help to minimise any odour.
Is Caerphilly CBC the first council to introduce this collection system?
No - more than 200 authorities have introduced this type of system and all have seen dramatic increases in their recycling rates.
I already compost a lot of my food waste. Can I continue to do so?
If you already compost at home please do not stop. Home composting is an ideal way to make your own compost. Use your kitchen caddy for anything you cannot or do not wish to compost at home such as cooked food, dairy, bread, pasta, meat, fish and bones.
What happens to the food and garden waste once it is collected?
Food and green/garden waste is mixed on the vehicle and composted together using an in-vessel composting system. At the facility the collected material is mixed and placed into tunnels. Each of the tunnels has a controlled environment where air-flow, temperature and moisture content can be adjusted. This allows the mixture to be composted correctly and also for the mixture to meet the Animal By-Product Regulations 2005. All emissions from the enclosed tunnels are filtered through a scrubber and bio-filter. In the future they may be composted via anaerobic digestion.
What happens to the food waste once it is composted?
The compost can be used by agricultural, horticultural and land-based industries, for example as a soil improver in agriculture and as a topsoil in land restoration.
What happens if my food waste is rejected?
Food waste that contains items that cannot go to the in-vessel composting facility will be rejected and a sticker placed on the caddy. Items that are unsuitable for the composting facility may be removed and the food waste re-presented the following week for collection. If this is not possible, the food waste may be placed in your refuse bin for collection with normal waste.
Can I wash the caddies using cleaning products?
Yes – we would recommend that both containers are washed out periodically to prevent unwanted smells. If cleaning products are used please give the containers a final rinse out with water.
Can I wrap my food waste in bags?
It is important that you do not use plastic carrier bags in your food caddy, as these are not compostable. You can either use newspaper to wrap the food or you can purchase small compostable sacks at various convenience stores throughout the county borough, details of which are available below.
Suppliers of compostable sacks (PDF 78kb)
How will other collections be affected?
Fortnightly refuse collections will begin once these new collections are up and running. Before, during and after the change is made we will ensure that every home has the opportunity to find out more and ask for advice.
Why is the council introducing fortnightly refuse collections?
- With the introduction of weekly recycling and food/garden waste collections, there should be very little waste left over in your refuse bins. Emptying your refuse bin every week will therefore become unnecessary.
- To encourage more people to take part in our recycling and food/garden waste collection schemes and use their rubbish bins less.
- To avoid being fined for not reaching EU landfill diversion targets.
- To save the cost of collecting and disposing of rubbish that could have been recycled/composted, and channel some of this money into expanding recycling services instead.
Will side waste (extra black bags) be taken?
- We won't collect extra refuse left on or next to your bin. To prevent spillage/disturbance by animals, refuse will need to be contained in your bin.
- If you have excess waste each week, please check our recycling page for waste reduction tips and to make sure you are recycling everything possible. For occasions when you generate extra waste - for example, parties and house moves, you can use one of our six Household Waste Recycling Centres.
- The only time that we will collect additional 'side waste' is during the two-week Christmas holiday period.
- Residents will now have a lot more capacity for their waste on a weekly basis. Please see the table below:
| WEEK 1 | | WEEK 2 | |
| Refuse bin | 240 litres | Recycling (brown bin/green box) | 240 litres/55 litres |
| Recycling (brown bin/green box) | 240 litres/55 litres | Garden waste | 180 litres |
| Garden waste | 180 litres | Food waste | 25 litres |
| Food waste | 25 litres | | |
Will the council be making a saving and if so, could I have a reduction in my council tax?
It would be uneconomical to send a vehicle out every week to collect half-full bins of refuse. The money that will be saved from collecting refuse fortnightly (and hopefully saving money by sending less to landfill) will be used to expand recycling services such as weekly collections of recyclables and food/garden waste collections.
Won't this encourage fly-tipping and prove very unhygienic if rubbish is dumped?
The introduction of these arrangements should not encourage fly-tipping. The council will still remove the refuse collected under the old system, just in a different way. We hope that responsible residents understand the reasons for the change and will take up the new services.
If domestic rubbish is dumped, and evidence of the owner determined, the council will prosecute.
Won't the new collection system be more expensive?
No, the operating costs after introduction will be similar to now. There will be a significant saving in avoided landfill waste disposal costs amounting to millions of pounds each year. Food waste accounts for 24% of household refuse in Caerphilly. By offering this service, the council can avoid potentially huge financial penalties in the coming years for sending compostable waste to landfill. If we do not take action now, these fines could run into the millions by 2010.