Kitchen caddy & food waste

Food waste should go into your green bin to be collected every week. 

Free kitchen caddy for food waste

If you're a Kempsey Shire resident with a waste service, you're entitled to a free kitchen caddy and compostable bags to line the caddy.

The kitchen caddy is a small bin you can use to collect and carry food scraps from your kitchen to your green organics bin.

To request your free kitchen caddy, call the Waste Hotline on 1300 342 207.

You can order free replacement rolls of bags by phoning the Waste Hotline or heading online to the Kempsey Shire Waste App.

The compostable bags will be delivered to your property free of charge.

How to use your free kitchen caddy

Step 1

Place a compostable bag in your caddy, wrap the edges over the side and keep the lid shut when the caddy is not in use.

Step 2

Fill your caddy with all your food waste, even things you can’t compost at home.

Step 3 

After a few days or when the caddy is almost full, tie the bag off and place it in your green bin with other organic waste like garden prunings and grass clippings.

Kitchen caddy bags

  • You must only use Council-provided compostable bags in the kitchen caddy, never plastic bags as these will not break down.
  • The Council-provided bags are made of cornstarch and break down, along with your food waste, in Council’s composting facility. Phone the Waste Hotline on 1300 342 207 to order a free replacement roll of compostable bags. These will be delivered to your property.

Helpful hints

  • You can line the caddy with newspaper to help soak up any excess moisture.
  • To help stop sharp bones or prawn shells piercing the liner, wrap them in newspaper.
  • To reduce odours, tie the bag up securely before putting it in your green bin. 
  • Freezing meat and seafood scraps until close to collection day is another way to reduce unwanted odours. 
  • Order your replacement bags a couple of weeks before you run out.

Let’s keep food waste out of landfill

By reducing food waste at home you will save money and time and help our environment.

  • On average, households in New South Wales throw out $77 worth of food each week. This is $4,000 per year per household.
  • When food breaks down in landfill, it generates methane – a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The less food we waste, the better it is for our environment.
  • Throwing away food also means throwing away the natural resources that went into growing, packaging, producing, transporting, selling and preparing the food.

If we keep compostable waste out of landfill, we can keep community costs down by minimising the expensive disposal costs and the NSW Government waste levy. 

The NSW Waste Less, Recycle More initiative aims to encourage local communities and industry to think differently about waste avoidance and will provide funding through a grants program until June 2021. This initiative is led by the NSW Environment Protection Authority and funded through the waste levy.

Food Smart

If you want to find out more about reducing food waste at your place, you can join the free MIDWASTE Food Smart program. 

More information

For free resources to help you learn how to buy, cook and preserve food to avoid wasting food and money, visit the Food Smart website.

This is a NSW Government Waste Less, Recycle More initiative funded from the waste levy.

Composting and worm farming

Home composting and worm farming are easy, fun and important ways to reduce the volume of waste going to landfill, cut greenhouse gas emissions and return nutrients to the soil. 

Composting

In compost bins, food and garden waste are turned into decomposed organic matter. When used in the garden, compost provides your soil with essential nutrients. Compost can also be used to break up heavy clay soils and help sandy soils hold moisture.

You can compost:

  • fruit and vegetable scraps
  • pulp from juicers
  • bread crusts
  • crushed eggshells
  • tea bags
  • coffee grounds and filters
  • grass clippings
  • leaves and flowers.

Read more about composting

Worm farms

Worm farms are an ideal way to dispose of food waste and receive a natural fertiliser for your garden in return. 

As they eat, worms make structures called worm castings. Castings can be placed straight onto your garden or mixed with water to make a liquid fertiliser.

Worms will eat:

  • fruit and vegetable scraps 
  • pulp from juicers
  • bread crusts
  • crushed eggshells
  • tea bags
  • leaves
  • shredded cardboard
  • paper.

Worms don’t like onion, garlic or citrus fruits.

Read more about worm farms

 

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