Find out more about what should and should not go in your brown bin.
On your day of collection, please place your bin at the kerbside by 7am with the lid fully closed. Please remove any straps, locks or weights before presenting your bin.
Unfortunately, we cannot take anything that is not in the bin. It is vital that all items are in the bin with the lid shut.
Please try not to compact the material in your bin, this can result in your bin being half emptied on collection day. If your bin is not fully emptied due to the material being compacted, or frozen together in winter months, it is your responsibility to loosen the material ready for your next scheduled collection. No additional collection will be provided for half emptied bins.
What can I put in my brown bin?
Your brown bin is for food and garden waste.
Meat and bones
Bread, Cakes and pastry
Cheese
Fruit peelings
Egg shells
Pizza crusts
Plate scrapings
Tea bags and coffee grounds
Fish bones
Tree and hedge clippings
Veg peelings
Leaves, twigs, grass clippings, weeds, flowers
Please be aware that from 1 June 2024 a Garden Waste Permit is required in order for garden refuse to be uplifted in your brown bin.
What NOT to put in your brown bin
Please do not put liquids such as sauces, soup, yoghurt, milk or oil into your brown bins, only solid food waste.
Please also try to remove any soil from your plants and garden waste before putting them in your brown bin.
Bagged waste, wood, plastic or glass
Liquids such as cooking oil, milk, soups and sauces - please check Zero Waste Scotland - What to do with cooking oil and fat? (opens new window) for more information on how to dispose of and recycle your waste cooking oil, or alternatively pour cooled cooking oil into a sealed bag or plastic container and place in your grey bin. Cooking oil cannot be disposed of in your brown, green or blue bin or at our recycling centres.
Soil, turf, rubble, stone, bricks, plant pots and ash
Plant Pots
Say NO To Plastic
Plastic bags should never be put into brown bins as they can't be recycled and contaminate the food and garden waste. Food should be placed in the bin loose or put in compostable bags when recycled in brown bins.
Compostable Bag Information - Following several questions about which compostable bags can be used, we can advise that bags clearly marked with 'EN 13432' or 'BS EN 13432' should be used. They may also display the following logo (although not always), so look out for either the text or image on the bags you use to dispose of your food waste. More supermarkets are providing compostable carrier bags, with the Cooperative as a recent example.
Please do not place plastic plant pots and trays in your brown bin. They cause contamination and should be placed in the grey bin. Alternatively, Dobbies has a pot return service Dobbies pot recycling (opens new window). Householders can also advertise unwanted plant pots and trays on sites such as, Freecycle, Gumtree, Freegle and Facebook or contact local allotments incase they can reuse them.
Brown Bin Frequently Asked Questions
You can combine garden and food waste in your brown bin. That includes:
All solid food including
tea bags,
coffee grounds,
egg shells,
cheese,
fruit,
vegetables and peelings,
meat,
fish,
bones
plate left overs.
Please do not put liquids such as sauces, soup, yoghurt, milk or oil into your brown bins, only solid food waste.
Garden waste, such as
grass and hedge cuttings,
flowers,
small branches and
weeds,
Please try to remove any soil before putting them in your brown bin.
You can wrap food in compostable bags but NOT plastic bags or place it in the brown bin loose.
Up until 2014/2015 we didn't have a separate food waste collection and so all food waste went in the grey bin which was uplifted fortnightly. This was the practice for many years and the frequency is no different to the current brown bin collection.
Food waste can be placed in brown bins in biodegradable bags to prevent smells. Many other councils operate similar systems for food waste and have not reported any additional issues such as smells or vermin.
West Lothian Council no longer accept food waste placed in plastic bags. This is because plastic doesn't biodegrade like food and garden waste does. Also, the process for recycling co-mingled food and garden waste is different to processing just food waste as we can no longer de-package the food waste through a bag splitter. Plastic bags containing food waste will therefore lead to an increase in contamination of the end product.
The limits for the amounts of plastic allowed in compost has also reduced and is reducing further in the near future. Our contractor, Levenseat Ltd, who processes our waste has to meet the decreasing limits for plastics that are stated in the SEPA end-of-waste regulatory guidance shown below, therefore we need to ensure that we help to comply with these new targets .
SEPA Revised End-of-Waste Regulatory Position for Compost (and Digestate)
SEPA has revised their end-of-waste regulatory position for compost (and digestate). The revised statement (issued in January 2017 SEPA Guidance - Regulation of Outputs from Composting (opens new window)) lists a number of conditions that compost producers must comply with in order for the compost to cease being regulated as 'waste', including the requirement for compost to be certified to PAS100, the Scheme Rules, and additional quality standards. These additional standards introduce a phased-in approach to reducing the levels of plastic contained within compost:
From 1st December 2018: plastic limit 0.08% (66% of PAS100 before 1st December 18)
From 1st December 2019: plastic limit 0.06% (50% of current PAS100 before 1st December 18)
This aligns plastic contamination limits with Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) standards. SEPA have also published new guidance on food waste management (SEPA Guidance - Food Waste Management in Scotland (opens new window)) which sets out obligations along the chain of food waste management.
Unfortunately most flatted properties are not currently offered a brown bin collection as most flats do not have a garden. If you do not receive a brown bin collection any garden/food waste you have can be placed in your grey bin or can be taken to a Community Recycling Centre.
The grates are fitted with hinges on one side so that when the bin is emptied the grate will open and any waste which has fallen through will still be emptied out. If any food waste is trapped in the grate itself, residents should try to dislodge this or leave it for the next collection where it will likely degrade and soften slightly, meaning it will fall out in the next collection.
Yes, these organisations accept that collecting food waste fortnightly is an acceptable practice.
Yes, other councils in Scotland collect food waste in this way including Aberdeen City, East Renfrewshire, Fife, Glasgow City, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Perth and Kinross.
Your brown bin waste is treated in a container along with the food waste. It is firstly screened to remove any contamination before it is shredded. The shredded material is then put into the vertical composting unit where it heats up naturally to kill off any pathogens. The heat is created by micro-organisms in the waste which helps to break it down into compost. The temperature is monitored carefully to ensure that the material is safe for use. The compost is then left to mature in the open air in big piles called windrows and it is screened again before being sold on for use as compost. Levenseat produce PAS 100 compliant compost, which is the standard used to measure the quality of compost.
Yes, there is no issue with placing food waste in this style of bin. These bins were originally purchased with vents to allow air circulation, however updated studies have shown that this is not necessary.
The council will only empty two brown bins per property, as per our Service Standards.
The council can only guarantee to empty two brown bins per property to ensure we can continue to service all of the properties in West Lothian. If householders present more than two brown bins for collection, they will not be emptied. Brown bin collections are every fortnight due to the addition of food waste collection in brown bins, therefore this is the equivalent of having four brown bins emptied every four weeks for those households that already have two brown bins.
