What goes in our green bins in East Cambridgeshire?

~ Garden waste (grass and hedge cuttings, leaves, dead plants/weeds, small branches)
~ Food waste (fruit, vegetables, meal leftovers) – Food can only be wrapped in newspaper or paper bags
~ Meat and bones (cooked or uncooked)
~ Tea bags (even though research has found microplastics in some teabags – these are still recyclable through our green bins)
~ Egg shells
~ Natural bedding from pets (straw, hay, sawdust)
~ Shredded paper (this is because it is too small to be picked up by the machinery so it will be composted)
~ Food Waste Cardboard (eg cardboard takeaway boxes and pizza boxes)

Other things accepted:

~ Coffee filters
~ Small off cuts of paper as too small for blue bin sorting
~ After Eight Mints Sleeves
~ Paper Straws
~ Bamboo or wood skewers

What doesn’t go in our green bins in East Cambridgeshire and why…

~ Biodegradable or compostable bags (the processing of our green waste in ECDC is too quick and the conditions aren’t right for these to break down), you can only use these in home composting

The green waste collected by East Cambs District Council goes through a process known as In-Vessel Composting (IVC) which takes approximately 10-18 weeks. Unfortunately, biodegradable and corn starch bags do not break down quick enough as part of this process (they need nearly 20 weeks) and as a result can leave plastics in the compost, this then has to be screened by farmers and can on occasions be rejected.

~ Flower pots (the plastic is too hard – needs to go to Witchford Recycling Centre or give away)
~ Cat litter and animal waste – because our green bin waste is turned into compost for local farms and crops