This Recycle Week, the City of Edinburgh Council is urging residents to get into the food waste recycling habit with a new video showing how easy it is to do.

More than 163,000 food waste caddies and communal bins are currently collected across Edinburgh each week after pilot food waste collections began in spring 2011.

The new video aims to encourage even more residents to recycle their food waste so that Edinburgh can increase the 700 tons of waste it sends to be converted into compost for parks, gardens and farmland every month.

Environment Convener Councillor Lesley Macinnes said: “Friday’s global climate strike and the great turnout at Edinburgh’s march highlighted the huge appetite to wage war on waste and protect our planet’s vital resources. Reducing consumption is clearly the very first step we need to master, but when we do have leftover food waste it’s important to recycle it.

“Recycling your food waste is really so simple to do but it makes an enormous difference. Every ton of food waste can generate enough electricity to boil 2,500 kettles – and we send 700 tons for recycling in Edinburgh each month, so that’s a lot of cups of tea! We hope this short video will inspire even more residents to adopt the food waste recycling habit.”

Order a grey food waste caddy on our website.

Food bins are collected by waste crews and taken to the food waste treatment facility at Millerhill to be sorted and then processed using anaerobic digestion. This creates a solid and liquid fertiliser to be used on farmland and gas for electricity.

One food caddy can generate enough electricity to power a TV for five hours and one tonne of food waste can generate enough electricity to boil 2,500 kettles of water.

Grey food waste caddy – cooked and uncooked food

You can put these in your grey food caddy
• beans, pasta, rice and bread
• cakes and bakery items
• dairy items, and eggs
• fruit and vegetables including peelings
• meat and fish including bones
• fast food, for example chips and pizzas
• tea bags and coffee grounds.

Food must be bagged. You can use any small plastic bag, such as carrier bag or a bread bag, or a compostable liner. Liners are available at libraries for £1 per roll or at supermarkets. If you prefer, you can just wrap it in newspaper.

You can’t put these in your grey food caddy

• liquids including milk and cooking oil
• food packaging.