Food waste recycling
On average, food waste makes up around 40% of household waste - let's try and reduce that together by not wasting good food, letting food go off, or buying too much - maybe you'll save money too!
Once you've taken steps to reducing your own food waste, the kitchen caddy and compostable bags are an easy and efficient way of recycling food waste through your green kerbside food organics garden organics (FOGO) bin.
Recycling food waste significantly reduces waste to landfill, saving money and helping our environment. Food waste placed in your kerbside FOGO bin is turned into nutrient rich compost!
Get your free kitchen caddy and compostable bags
All households within our city are entitled to:
- One free kitchen caddy.
If your household does not already have a caddy, you can collect one. You can also return broken caddies to us for replacement and recycling.
- One free roll of 150 compostable bags per year.
Additional rolls of bags can be purchased for $10 per roll.
Collect your kitchen caddy and/or compostable bags from Councils office. If you are unable to visit during office hours, please contact us to arrange an alternative pick up option.
How to use your kitchen caddy
Use your caddy in the kitchen either on the bench top or a well-ventilated area.
1. Line your caddy with a compostable bag or newspaper. Only certified compostable bags (labelled AS 4736 and/or Home Compostable AS 5810) should be used.
2. Collect food waste and other compostable items such as coffee grounds, tea bags, tissues, paper towel in your kitchen caddy.
3. After 1-2 days or when the caddy is full, empty the caddy in your green kerbside FOGO bin. This material will then be sent to a commercial composting facility where it will be turned into high quality compost.
Kitchen caddy tips
Tips for using the kitchen caddy system:
- Clean the caddy regularly and let it dry out. You can put it in the dishwasher!
- Put a fresh compostable liner in when the caddy is clean and dry.
- Place in an easily accessible area in the kitchen that is well ventilated.
- Freeze food waste like seafood and meat until your collection day to avoid odours.
- Let hot food cool down before placing it in your caddy.
- Paper towel and tissues can be placed into your kitchen caddy and helps absorb moisture.
- A tight-fitting lid on your green organics bin will help keep flies and pests away.
- After emptying your caddy into the green kerbside FOGO bin, place lawn clippings, leaves or shredded paper on the food waste to absorb moisture and reduce odours.
Resources
- Kitchen Caddy Information - English
- Kitchen Caddy Information - Chinese
- Kitchen Caddy Information - Italian
Reduce food waste at home
Reducing food waste is one of the simplest ways to save money and help the environment. Planning meals, storing food correctly, using leftovers and understanding date labels can help ensure more of the food you buy is eaten rather than thrown away. The Great Unwaste provides you with practical tips to help households reduce food waste and make the most of the food they buy in simple, effective steps.
Make the most of the food you buy
Looking for inspiration in the kitchen? Saveful offers meal planning tools, storage advice, recipes and leftover ideas to help households reduce food waste while saving time and money. You can use Saveful to be an app version of your kitchen - listing in what you have in the pantry, in the fridge, what's on your shopping list, and helps you be flexible with what you have, and adapting recipes for you - to maybe reduce your shopping list, and your food waste!
Grow your own veggies at home compost
Some of you may be lucky enough to have garden space, and are trying to grow your own herbs and veggies yourself! Campbelltown used to be full of market gardens, and so now having a backyard is a great opportunity to be self sufficient - at least with one or two things - aim to do them well rather than trying to grow everything you'll need!
For tips on growing food at home, check out Green Adelaide's website.
Setting up a home compost system or worm farm is a great re-use of most of your kitchen scraps.
Frequently asked questions
Biodegradable bags have additives that over time, will break the plastic down into smaller-sized pieces of plastic, which take many decades to disappear. Biodegradable bags are not compostable and will contaminate your green organics bin.
Compostable bags are made of plant materials and break down during the commercial composting process into non-toxic components.
Only certified compostable bags (labelled AS 4736 and/or Home Compostable AS 5810) should be used in your kitchen caddy and green kerbside FOGO bin. Most supermarkets now have compostable bags in the food produce section, so you can use these to line your caddy too. Look for the logo!
If your caddy is broken, please bring it into the Council's office at 172 Montacute Road, Rostrevor, and we will replace it for you. Your old caddy will not go to waste, it will be recycled and made into new kitchen caddies!
If it's quite dirty - consider cleaning it or putting it in the dishwasher before bringing it back to us please - maybe you can give it a new life first!
If you have used up your annual free allocation of compostable liners from Council, you have a few options.
- You can purchase a new roll at Council offices.
- You can purchase a new roll from another supplier (ensure they are certified compostable bags labelled AS 4736 and/or Home Compostable AS 5810).
- You can use compostable produce bags when you purchase fruit and vegetables in produce sections of supermarkets and greengrocers.
If your property does not have a green FOGO bin or you live in a block of units that has never had a green FOGO bin, we are keen to work with you to make sure the 3-bin kerbside system is adequate for you.
If you have only a small space for bins or do not have a big garden, you can order a small 140L bin rather than a standard 240L bin.
Please contact us to discuss your options.
- Fruit Crew and Grow Free Cart - Council volunteer group and opportunities to share excess produce.
- Fruit Share Adelaide - Adelaide-wide volunteer group to redistribute excess fruit to those who need it.
- Ozharvest - ​has been redistributing safely excess food and meals from businesses for a long time, now they have educational workshops for schools, employment pathways for young people, volunteering opportunities, and many more opportunities to get involved to reduce food waste.
- The Great Unwaste - A campaign designed to help people reduce waste in their own homes - look after food so it lasts longer! We can all participate - see how good you are at saving food.
- Too Good To Go - Local shops that have too much food might upload surprise bags of leftover goods at discounted prices. You might know of a business interested in signing up. This helps reducing food waste for shops.
- Saveful - App to help you manage your kitchen - reduce food waste, use what you have, buy less, a kitchen aid!
- Federal Government - has a National Food Waste Strategy with a target to halve food waste by 2030.