Food and garden waste: what goes in the brown bin?

The rule is simple: anything of plant or animal origin that breaks down naturally. In practice, food and garden waste includes:

• Kitchen scraps: fruit and vegetable peelings, eggshells, coffee grounds and tea leaves, leftover bread and baked goods, and out-of-date food removed from its packaging.
• Garden waste: grass cuttings, leaves, pruned twigs, weeds and wilted houseplants.
• Small extras: untreated paper towels, natural cork and cut flowers.

Cut branches into shorter pieces so they break down faster. Remember to remove food scraps from their packaging: a plastic bag or plastic tray belongs to a different waste stream.

The most common mistake is treating the brown bin as a second mixed-waste bin. Several items regularly spoil whole batches of compost:

• Plastic bags, including “compostable” ones: bags labelled biodegradable break down more slowly than composting plants process waste, so most municipalities prohibit them. Paper bags are a safer choice.
• Ash and vacuum-cleaner contents: they do not ferment and contaminate the compost.
• Animal faeces and cat litter: for hygiene reasons, these cannot go to a composting facility.
• Liquids: oil, soup and sauces flood the bin and make processing difficult.
• Treated wood, large quantities of bones and cigarette ends belong in mixed waste.

If you have a garden, you can process food and garden waste yourself in a home composter. This is a simple box or bin placed on the ground. Add “green” material such as grass and peelings in turns with “brown” material such as leaves and cardboard, then collect the finished compost after a few months for use as a natural fertiliser.

Many municipalities reward this: owners of home composters may receive a reduction in part of the municipal waste-management fee, or may be able to give up the brown bin and pay less. Conditions vary by municipality. You will usually need to submit an updated declaration and agree to a possible inspection. Check your municipality’s rules, as the saving can apply throughout the year.

Food and garden waste can make up about one third of municipal waste by weight. When mixed waste goes to landfill, its organic content decomposes without oxygen and releases methane, a greenhouse gas many times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Wet scraps also contaminate other material: soaked paper and plastic may no longer be recyclable.

Separated organic waste goes to a composting or anaerobic-digestion plant, where it becomes compost or biogas. This closes the material loop: what grew from the soil returns to it. It also means the black mixed-waste bin fills much more slowly.

There is a legal dimension too. EU and national targets require rising municipal-waste recycling rates, and municipalities that miss them pay penalties whose cost ultimately reaches residents through fees. Separating food and garden waste therefore helps both the climate and household budgets. Some municipal composting facilities also give finished compost to residents in spring, free or for a token charge: tangible proof that “waste” can become useful.

The brown bin is collected according to the municipal schedule: commonly every week in summer and less often in winter, when there is less garden waste. It is especially worth watching the date in summer. Organic waste ferments quickly in the heat, attracts flies and smells, so a missed collection can mean two difficult weeks. In many municipalities the collection calendar also changes with the season. The current schedule is available on the municipality’s website or in its app.

Keep the bin in the shade where possible and line the bottom with newspaper or cardboard so waste is less likely to freeze to it in winter or stick in summer. To help you remember to put the bin out, BinMinder can send a free reminder the evening before collection.