Payment provider transition is complete.Payments via online and telephone are available. Services under Pay for it, are available.
While the majority of payments in most service areas will be available after 1 PM, several service forms will be unavailable until Friday 29th November, 1 PM. This includes the form(s) in this section.
We apologise for any inconvenience.
Since 2023, we've provided separate weekly food waste collections for a limited number of households. Following the success of this limited 'pilot scheme', we're now providing food recycling bins to all Thurrock houses. By law, we must provide this service by 2025/26 with no households excluded.
There is no charge for this service.
If you were part of the original pilot scheme, your service will not change.
Food bins were delivered for all houses in Thurrock, up to the end of August 2024. If you live in a house and your food bin was not delivered or it arrived damaged, you can report a damaged or missing bin.
As planned, the Council have begun planning what will be the final phase of the rollout, which will result in all residential properties in the borough getting access to our separate food waste collection service. During the planning of this phase, the Council have taken into consideration the feedback from our residents, and the different requirements of the waste and recycling services provided to residents living in flats and other residential buildings, such as sheltered schemes.
This work has resulted in a change to the original plan as the remaining residential buildings yet to begin receiving our separate food waste collection service will now be individually assessed where applicable. To not only ensure the residents requirements for the collection and disposal of food waste are met as per our legislative requirements, but also to review all the waste and recycling services we provide these types of residential properties. All with the aim of improving the services we provide residents of these types of residential buildings.
Please look to revisit this web page for further information and more detail about our plans.
From when we begin to provide your property with a separate food waste collection service, each household should receive:
We can only provide compostable bags while our stocks last – one roll per household.
Many people keep their caddy on a kitchen worktop or under the sink, or next to the kitchen bin. You can use your own caddy if you prefer one that fits better in your kitchen or is more stylish.
You can start using your food caddy as soon as you receive it. When ready, tie-up your liner bags and put them in your food bin for us to collect. It's best to tie-up bags before they're full.
You can start putting out your food bin to be collected from the week after it's delivered.
Leave your food bin out with your other bins on your usual collection day every week.
You must make sure the lid of the bin is fully closed. Turn the bin's handle upright so it 'locks' the lid shut. We'll remove all the tied liner bags from inside and take them away for recycling.
Never leave bags of food waste outside your food recycling bin – we will not collect food waste left outside your food recycling bin.
If you do not have liners for your caddy, or your supply runs out, you can either:
Plastic bags and newspaper can only be put in your food bin as a liner, if you don't have compostable bags – if you need to dispose of them as waste, use your blue bin for clean newspaper and use your green/grey bin for plastic bags or food-stained newspaper.
You can recycle all types of solid food waste as long as you remove the packaging. This includes eggshells, bones and teabags.
You must not use your food recycling bin for:
We will not empty bins that contain the wrong types of waste.
Use our A to Z of waste and recyclable items to check what you can put in each of your bins.
As your kitchen caddy is smaller than your ordinary waste bin, you can empty it more often. This will help to avoid any unwanted smells in your home.
Using a liner and washing out your caddy regularly will also help prevent smells.
You can prevent your food waste from attracting flies by:
It's most important to follow the advice above during hot weather. If you don't follow this advice and food waste is left in the open, it may attract flies that lay eggs and produce maggots.
The food waste we collect gets broken down to create methane gas. This methane is stored and safely converted into a type of gas that can be used to make electricity, heat or transport fuels. Any remaining waste can be recycled as a fertiliser for crops or for land regeneration.
If food waste goes to landfill instead of being recycled, it rots and releases methane into the air. When methane is in the atmosphere it can be 2.5 times more harmful than carbon dioxide as a 'greenhouse' gas. As these gases build up, they can trap too much of the sun's heat and lead to dangerous climate change – go to GOV.UK: Climate change explained.
For advice on reducing food waste, go to Love Food Hate Waste.
You can re-use food waste by composting.
If your food recycling bin was put out for collection before 6am on your collection day but it is not collected and no explanation is given, you can report it the next day as a missed bin.
