Food waste collections

• Check if you have a food waste collection and find out the day
• Find out what food waste can can be collected
• Get corn starch caddy liners

Food waste accounts for about half the weight of household rubbish in Tower Hamlets. When food waste is deposited in landfill it rots and emits large amounts of methane, a major contributor to climate change. To help residents to reduce the environmental impact of food waste in landfill we have launched a food waste collection service for 30,000 households in the borough.

The service covers all street level properties and most blocks of flats managed by Poplar Harca and Tower Hamlets Community Housing (THCH).

Where we collect and collection days

To find out if your property is included in the food waste collection service please open the document below, type in the name of your road or block of flats into the ‘Find’ box and press return.

Use this document if you live in a block of flats (DS means that you have a collection from your doorstep)

• Food waste collection for flats (PDF 46 Kb)

Use this document if you live in street level property

• Check food waste collection day for street level properties (pdf 386 Kb). Please check the last column in this document to see if food waste collections are available for your area.

If your household is included in the current service you should have a small silver kitchen caddy and compostable liners.  Depending on where you live you may bring the food waste down to a communal food waste collection bin located on site or have a larger brown caddy collected from your doorstep.  If food waste is collected from your doorstep please make sure it is out by 7am and is clearly visible to the collection crews. 

We can collect any raw or cooked food waste including:

Unfortunately we cannot take:

• Oil, fats or liquids
• Any type of plastic carrier bag
• Any packaging - even that marked 'compostable' or biodegradable' as this takes too long to break down
• Nappies
• Other rubbish

Never put food waste into carrier bags or black sacks.  These do not break down and can ruin the compost.

Read more about your service:

• Leaflet for flats with a communal food waste collection bin (PDF 5mb) 
• Leaflet for street level properties and flats with doorstep collections (PDF 1.75Mb)

Corn starch liners

If your household is included in the service special corn starch caddy liners will be delivered to your door every few months. If you run out you can get some more:

Email generalenquiries@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Call us on 020 7364 5004

Liners can be collected from your local One Stop Shop, Idea Store or Library                                                                or from the Town Hall or Anchorage House (between 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday only)