It's easy to recycle your food waste and stop it going to landfill.
Food scraps make up around 40% (by weight) of household rubbish. When food breaks down in landfill, it releases harmful greenhouse gases. These gases contribute to climate change.
Four easy ways to recycle your food scraps:
Wrap your food scraps in newspaper or paper towelling and put them in your green organics bin. This keeps your bin clean and helps absorb some of the moisture from your scraps.
If you don't have a green organics bin, you can buy one through Council by calling 8408 1111.
Learn more about what you can put in your green organics bin.
Using a kitchen caddy with compostable bags is an easy and efficient way to recycle food scraps.
Your kitchen caddy can live on the bench top or under the sink. When it's full, tie off the compostable bag and place it directly into your green organics bin.
It will then be sent to a commercial composting facility and turned into high quality compost.
All food scraps can go in your kitchen caddy, as well as lawn clippings, weeds and garden prunings.
Only bags clearly marked as compostable are suitable to place in your green organics bin. Plastic bags, and bags that are labelled degradable, are not suitable as they don't break down in compost.
You can grab a free kitchen caddy at our Civic Centre (Woodville) or any of our five Libraries, just drop-in during opening hours and bring some ID to show you are a Charles Sturt resident.
Read more about how to use your kitchen caddy and compostable bags.
Worm farms are a great alternative to composting for people with small gardens. Worm farms can be kept inside, outside, on a balcony or in the shed. Worm farms are an excellent way of dealing with most food scraps.
Worms are voracious eaters and will eat most food scraps.
Worms do not like:
- meat
- onions, garlic and shallots
- citrus
- acidic food like tomato and pineapples
Put these foods in your green organics bin instead.
Read more about how to make a worm farm.
Home composting is a natural and efficient way to recycle food scraps. It gives you a free high-quality resource for your garden, making it more water efficient and adding rich nutrients to the soil.
Home composting is easy to do, cheap and provides many benefits for the environment and your garden.
You can compost most food scraps except meat, fish and bones. These don't break down in your home compost and can attract pests. Put them in your green organics bin instead.
Read more about how to make a home compost.
Got leftovers in your fridge?
We have a recipe finder that helps you get the most out of every meal and ingredient in your kitchen. It will save you time and money and reduce your household waste.