5 Food Waste Myths Busted

False! To replace the ‘ick’ with ‘slick’ and make recycling banana peelings more ap-pealing (ahem) you should:

  • Line your caddy with newspaper or biodegradable liners. Talk to your local council who will tell you where and how you can get your liners.
  • When not being used keep your caddy lid closed.
  • Every so often give it a clean. You can pop it in your dishwasher or use the soapy water after doing the dinner dishes.
  • Throwing away any lemon wedges? Give the inside of the caddy a quick wipe with the lemon before you throw it in to get rid of any odours.
False! Rubbish goes to landfill where it releases greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Your food caddy waste is taken to a recycling plant where it is turned into nitrogen-rich compost to be used in local parks and as an organic fertiliser to grow your vegetables. It can even be turned into energy. What a difference!
False! Food waste needs oxygen to break down naturally, but it’s starved of this in landfill so it produces methane – a greenhouse gas that is over 20 times more potent that carbon dioxide. Sounds like a very good reason to stop tossing food into your rubbish bin today.

False! It costs your council £50 less per tonne to send your food scraps for recycling than it does to send them to landfill. We throw away 125,000 tonnes of food each year in Northern Ireland. That’s a potential saving of £6 million per year – money which could be spent on improving public services like playgrounds, libraries and leisure centres.

Hassle? Just move your caddy closer to where you wash your dishes. Recycle food at your convenience without having to walk over to the big food bin to do it.

No room? You can keep your caddy on your window sill, worktop or under the sink, where there is no fuss, no mess and best of all it’s out of sight.

Food Waste Caddies and Liners

If you haven’t already got a food waste caddy or need more liners contact your local council.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS CAMPAIGN

Food Waste Recycling

If your rubbish bin is overflowing with leftovers, vegetable peelings, and tea bags, why not put it on a diet? It’s easy to do. Recycling your food waste instead of putting it in the bin only takes a little effort and is an easy way to help protect the environment and save your local council money they can spend on local services.