Westminster food waste collection: which of four services your building gets, where to pick up free liners, and the bag that gets your bin skipped.
Westminster food waste collection is not one service, it is four, and which one you get depends on your building rather than your postcode. That is why neighbours a hundred metres apart get completely different answers, and why so many residents in mansion blocks conclude the service does not reach them when it does.
Here is what the council actually runs, what goes in the caddy, and the single mistake that gets a bin left on the pavement uncollected.
Which of the four services you get
Westminster ran a food waste trial from autumn 2019 to February 2022 covering around 7,000 households, which collected more than 700 tonnes. Since March 2022 it has been rolling out a permanent service, and the council’s position now is that most residents have access to one of these:
- Weekly kerbside collection. The standard house and small-block service: a caddy out for collection on your normal day.
- Communal food waste bins. Used mainly on council housing estates and in private blocks of flats, with a shared bin in the bin store.
- An on-street neighbourhood service. For properties with no room to store or present a bin, using a shared on-street container.
- A two-hour on-demand booking service. Available only in St James’s, West End and Marylebone wards.
If your building has none of these, that is worth chasing rather than accepting. The council asks residents in that position to email foodwaste@westminster.gov.uk or call 020 7641 2000. One caveat that explains a lot of stalled requests: if your building has a managing agent or property management company, Westminster needs that company’s approval before it can introduce the service. If your block has been waiting, the blockage is often the agent, not the council, and a note to your managing agent usually moves it faster than another email to the town hall.
Your normal rubbish and recycling days are a separate question, covered in our guide to Westminster bin collection days.
The on-demand service, and its rules
The on-demand service launched in summer 2023 for suitable properties in St James’s, West End and Marylebone, where there is limited space to store bins. You sign up, the council delivers a kitchen bin, a roll of liners and a leaflet, and when the silver bin fills you book a two-hour slot online or by phone. Collection can be as soon as the next working day, weekdays only.
Two conditions catch people out, and both are stated plainly by the council:
- You have to be in. The crew collects from the main communal front door and you hand the waste over. You cannot leave it outside.
- Crews will not come to your flat door. They collect at the communal entrance, not from inside the building.
That makes the service excellent for someone who works from home and awkward for someone who does not. If nobody can be in, the communal or on-street option is the better fit, if your building qualifies for one.
What goes in the caddy
The accepted list is broader than most people assume. It takes all food waste, cooked or raw, including the things kerbside garden-waste schemes elsewhere refuse:
- Plate scrapings and mouldy food
- Fish, meat and bones
- Dairy: cheese, yoghurt, eggs and eggshells
- Tea bags and coffee grounds
- Rice, pasta and beans
- Bread and pastries
- Fruit and vegetables
The refusals matter more, because getting one wrong contaminates the load:
- Packaging of any kind, including compostable packaging. This is the one that surprises people. A compostable coffee cup or a compostable ready-meal tray does not go in the food bin in Westminster.
- Black plastic bags (see below, this one has consequences)
- Liquids, including milk
- Flowers and garden waste
- Oil and liquid fat
- Anything that is not food, including tupperware and cotton cloths
Remove all packaging before the food goes in the caddy. Where it all ends up is an anaerobic digestion plant outside London, which turns it into biogas fed to the national grid and a bio-fertiliser used on farmland.
The mistake that gets your bin skipped
Do not line your kitchen caddy with a black bin bag. Westminster is explicit: if you use black plastic, your food waste bin will not be collected, because the crews cannot see inside to check whether it has been contaminated.
This is not a discretionary rule enforced by a grumpy loader. It is the whole basis on which the crew decides at the kerb, in a few seconds, whether a bin is safe to tip. A transparent liner lets them see food. A black bag could be anything.
How to get free liners
Westminster provides food waste liners free, on rolls of 52, made from 100 per cent recycled plastic. There are three routes depending on where you live.
If you live on a Westminster housing estate. Email foodwaste@westminster.gov.uk or call 020 7641 2000 with your full address, including flat number and full postcode. You can also collect a roll in person from:
- Tachbrook Estate (Peabody) workshop
- Peabody Avenue (Peabody) caretaker’s flat
- Churchill Gardens Estate office, Lupus Street
- Church Street Estate Central Office, 24 Lilestone Street
If you live in any other property type. Order through the council’s resident self-service portal, keep the reference number, and allow five working days for delivery. If nothing arrives by then, chase the Recycling Team at foodwaste@westminster.gov.uk.
Or pick a roll up from a library. Church Street, Maida Vale, Pimlico, Queen’s Park, St John’s Wood, Paddington, Victoria, Charing Cross, Mayfair, Marylebone and Westminster Reference Library all hold them. One correction worth noting, because the council has had to say it: Little Venice Sports Centre is not a liner pick-up point, whatever you may have been told.
You do not have to use council liners at all. Any transparent pedal bin liner from a supermarket works, whether compostable or recycled plastic, and so does an old plastic bag on its last legs, or newspaper, or a paper bag. All liners are removed at the processing facility before the food is recycled, which is why the material of the liner matters less than the fact that the crew can see through it.
Why the council is pushing it
Around 30 per cent of what Westminster households throw away is food waste, which is the single biggest thing left in the general rubbish stream. Since the food waste service was introduced, the borough’s household recycling rate has risen to 24.6 per cent for 2022/23, which is low by national standards and reflects how many Westminster homes are flats without space for a full set of bins. Food waste is the lever the council has, because it does not require anyone to find room for another wheelie bin.
For everything else the household throws out, see our guides to Westminster’s recycling centre and bulky waste collection.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get free food waste liners in Westminster? If you live on a council estate, email foodwaste@westminster.gov.uk or call 020 7641 2000 with your full address, or collect a roll from Tachbrook Estate workshop, Peabody Avenue caretaker’s flat, Churchill Gardens Estate office or Church Street Estate Central Office. Other residents order through the resident self-service portal and should allow five working days, or pick up a roll from most Westminster libraries. Each roll holds 52 liners.
Can I put compostable packaging in the Westminster food bin? No. Westminster excludes packaging of any kind, and specifically says that includes compostable packaging. Compostable cups, trays and cutlery go in the general rubbish. Only the food itself belongs in the caddy.
Why was my food waste bin not collected? The most common reason is a black plastic bag. Crews cannot see through it to check for contamination, so the bin is left. Use a transparent liner, a council liner, an old carrier bag, newspaper or a paper bag instead.
Which parts of Westminster have the on-demand food waste service? Suitable properties in St James’s, West End and Marylebone wards only. You book a two-hour slot, you must be at home, and the crew collects from your building’s main communal front door rather than your flat door.
Can I put milk or cooking oil in the food waste bin? No. Westminster excludes liquids such as milk, and oil and liquid fat. Cooking oil should be allowed to cool and solidify and go in the general rubbish, or be taken to a recycling centre that accepts it.
My block does not have the service. What do I do? Contact the council at foodwaste@westminster.gov.uk or on 020 7641 2000. If your building has a managing agent, note that Westminster needs the agent’s approval before it can introduce the service, so it is worth writing to the agent at the same time.
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