Are you on board with recycling food waste yet? If not, you really should be as there are plenty of reasons why recycling food waste is great – not least because it helps prevent your regular bins from getting a bit stinky…especially in the warmer months.
Some people seem to think recycling food waste is unhygienic, whereas actually, recycling your food waste creates fewer smells and is much more hygienic than carelessly putting everything in the bin.
Remember, the content of our food waste caddies gets collected every week, whilst our non-recyclable waste doesn’t. Do you really want food waste to be sitting in your bin for a couple of weeks and making everything a bit yucky?
It’s much better, and less whiffy, to get on board with recycling food waste so we can collect it from you on a weekly basis.
Having said that, we know food caddies will sometimes need a bit of extra love during the summer, so here a few tips to help keep your caddy in tip-top shape.
Tips to keep your food caddy fresh
- Empty the liner more frequently in warmer weather. Simply put, if it’s warm the contents of your food caddy will start to smell faster than they would in colder months. Try to empty it more regularly when it’s hot. Remember, containers are emptied on a weekly basis.
- Clean/disinfect the caddy regularly. Like any bin you own, your caddy will need a bit of TLC too. Try to clean it regularly, especially when it’s warm.
- Sprinkle some bicarbonate of soda in the bottom of the caddy. Bicarbonate soda is a great way to neutralise odours quickly, so if you have some sitting in your cupboard then you might want to dash a bit in the bottom of your caddy.
- Wipe up any drips straight away. Sometimes drips are unavoidable, but making sure you mop them up swiftly will help prevent any smells.
- Keep the kitchen caddy out of direct sunlight. Finding a cool place to store your caddy, away from any direct sunlight will be a big help.
- Keep the lid closed. Keeping the lid closed will keep flies away and stop smells from travelling around the room, so if you don’t already, try to get into the habit of closing the lid.
- Don’t overfill your liner. A common problem seems to be caddy liners splitting, and one of the best ways to prevent this from happening is to make sure you don’t overfill them.
- Take your kitchen caddy outside when transferring waste. Another useful tip is to carry your food waste outside in your kitchen caddy once you’re ready to transfer it to the bigger kerbside caddy. This helps to prevent splitting and spillages.
Hopefully you’re now on board and ready to recycle your food waste. Need a caddy and liners? No worries, you can get both for free.
Order a new caddy
We offer free replacement kitchen and kerbside caddies, so if you need one, don’t sweat it – you just need to order a new one.
You can request a new food caddy easily on our website, where you can also order new recycling boxes if you need them. We’ll get your new caddy out to you as quick as we can, but sometimes we can experience exceptionally high amounts of these orders, which may require you to wait for your delivery. If your caddy doesn’t arrive quickly, please try to be patient as we work our way through the backlog of orders.
We offer free caddy liners
You can get our free caddy liners by simply tying an empty liner to your caddy handle on your collection day and the recycling crew will leave you a new roll.
Or, if you prefer, you can collect the free caddy liners (as well as replacement blue sacks) at a variety of locations in Wrexham, including a number of convenience stores, estate offices, libraries and recycling centres.
Cllr Terry Evans, Lead Member for Environment, said: “In Wrexham we provide free food caddies and free liners to try and make it easy for our residents to recycle food waste. Although many take advantage of this service, unfortunately some residents still aren’t recycling food waste at all. Please make sure you take advantage of our food recycling service.”
For more info on recycling in Wrexham, please visit wrexham.gov.uk/recycling
Reminder: Garden waste collection service runs until Feb 2025 – Wrexham Council News
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