Food waste recycling across the Liverpool City Region
Wirral Council is working closely in partnership with other councils across the Liverpool City Region (LCR), as well as Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority (MRWA), to introduce new weekly food waste collections to much of the region.
Through working together over the last 12 months, the councils have combined their spending power to jointly procure food waste vehicles, food caddies and caddy liners in preparation for offering residents a weekly food waste collection. By coordinating the approach across the LCR, this also helps secure the best treatment solution.
St Helens Council, which has provided food waste to residents for over a decade, is refreshing its existing service to all residents as well as expanding collections to flats.
From 22nd September 2025, Liverpool City Council will be starting Phase 1 of its roll out to approximately 15,000 properties and will launch a campaign to raise awareness about the benefits and importance of recycling across the city.
Wirral and the other partner councils will follow Liverpool and St Helens by introducing food waste collections in spring/summer of 2026.
For all councils, the service makes it easy and convenient for residents to recycle their food waste whilst helping to reduce the amount of waste being sent for more environmentally-damaging types of disposal.
Everyone will have some inedible food waste such as eggs shells, tea bags or banana skins, so a new weekly collection not only helps reduce waste and provide an opportunity for residents to recycle more but also helps keep household bins cleaner and less full.
When recycled, food waste can be turned into something useful. The food waste is taken to an anaerobic digestion facility where it is used to generate natural forms of energy, such as biogas, an excellent alternative to fossil fuels and a fertiliser which can be used in farming.
We have worked incredibly closely as a partnership during the last year and so it is great to see our colleagues at Liverpool and St Helens moving forward with all our support. We look forward to introducing collections across the rest of the LCR next year so that all residents will have the opportunity to recycle more and contribute to the LCR’s net zero ambitions.
More and more residents are becomingly aware of the environmental impact of their waste so we are seeing an increasing demand from them to be able to have food waste collected separately and to be able to recycle more from home. We are really looking forward, with the introduction of food waste collections in 2026, to playing our part in achieving a circular economy and thereby better protecting the environment.
For more information please visit the Recycle Right website
The Liverpool City Region Waste & Resources Partnership is made up of the six councils responsible for collecting waste in the LCR and the Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority (MRWA), who are responsible for treating the region’s waste.
