Kerbside recycling: food scraps

What you can put in your food scraps bin 

• Vegetable and fruit peelings
• Leftovers
• Cooked and uncooked meat
• Dairy products such as cream cheese or yoghurt
• Meat and fish bones
• Coffee grounds
• Tea leaves.

• Remove any food packaging, plastic bags or labels including produce labels.
• Check no metal such as cutlery is included.

• Compostable or biodegradable packaging and cutlery
• Paper and cardboard (unless used as a bin liner)
• Plastics, including plastic wrapping
• Coffee pods
• Tea bags.

Once collected and processed, the nutrients in your food scraps bin are returned to the land. Some materials can't break down properly or might harm the soil. That's why we don't allow them in the food scraps bins.

• Compostable and biodegradable packaging requires specific conditions to breakdown, but most facilities in Aotearoa lack the necessary equipment for handling this packaging. The Ministry for the Environment’s position statement on compostable products provides further information. 

• Packaging including paper and cardboard might also contain chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) which are harmful to the environment. This chemical is often added to make the packaging water or grease resistant.

• Plastic can't be composted because it doesn't break down naturally like other materials. Instead, it can disintegrate into tiny pieces called microplastics which are harmful to the environment.

• Coffee pods are typically made of plastic or aluminum which cannot break down in organic material processing facilities.

• Many tea bags sold in Aotearoa contain plastic, either woven into the tea bag or used as a glue/sealant. Loose tea leaves can go in your food scraps bin.

Read more about why paper, cardboard, and compostable packaging can't go in your food scraps collection

Food scrap processing varies across the country.

Check whether your local council’s food scraps collection allows these additional items:

• Compostable bin liners
• Small amounts of garden organics such as cut flowers
• Shells such as mussel or pipis.

• Compost and other soil amendment products
• Liquid fertiliser
• Vermicompost – worm castings
• Animal food
• Biogas, which is a renewable energy that’s produced when organic matter is broken down.

There are four common methods for processing food scraps.

They can be sent to:

• a composting facility and turned into compost
• a vermicomposting facility and fed to worms
• an insect farm and used to feed insects which are then turned into fish food and other feed
• an anaerobic digestion plant and turned into biogas and liquid fertiliser.

For more information read What can I do with my food waste (PDF, 5.3 MB) [Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor]