The Ultimate Guide to Food Waste Collection in Bristol

Every year, Bristol throws away thousands of tonnes of food. Some of it is still edible. Most of it ends up in kerbside food waste bins, where it’s sent away to industrial facilities. There, the scraps are processed to capture energy, but what’s left behind often becomes sterile, yet contaminated, sludge that doesn’t rebuild the soil that grows our food.

At Generation Soil, we believe food waste should stay local. Because food scraps aren’t rubbish, they’re resources. In this guide, we’ll break down how food waste collection works in Bristol, what happens to your scraps, and how choosing a local service can help cut emissions, enrich soils, and build a more resilient city.

Why Bristol’s Food Waste Matters

1️⃣ The Climate Impact

When food waste breaks down in landfill or poorly managed bins, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas over 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. In the UK, food waste accounts for around 8–10% of global emissions. Bristol’s contribution may seem small, but when thousands of households throw away food every week, it adds up fast.

2️⃣ The Soil Impact

When food is composted properly, it doesn’t just disappear; it returns carbon, nutrients, and microbes to the soil. This living compost builds soil structure, water retention, and fertility, all of which are essential for growing food and storing carbon.

3️⃣ The Community Impact

When we compost locally, the benefits stay in the community. Instead of being transported miles away, food scraps become living compost that feeds community gardens, schools, allotments, and farms across Bristol. Every bucket of waste becomes part of a circular food system where waste becomes abundance.

How Food Waste Collection Works in Bristol

Most households in Bristol have access to Bristol City Council’s food waste collection service. Residents fill small kitchen caddies, empty them into outdoor bins, and crews collect them weekly.

However, the collected food waste is sent to anaerobic digestion facilities, often outside the city. These facilities capture methane to generate electricity, which is better than landfill, but it’s not the same as composting.

The by-product of this process, called digestate, is spread on farmland. While it adds some nutrients, it lacks the living microbes that make healthy soil thrive. It’s a chemical sludge, not a biological one.

That’s why community-led food waste projects like Generation Soil’s Bristol Living Compost Project are so important. Instead of exporting waste, we keep it in Bristol, transforming food scraps into microbe-rich, regenerative compost that directly supports local soils.

What You Can (and Can’t) Put in Your Food Waste Bin

Whether you use the council service or our community collection, knowing what goes in your caddy matters. Contamination is one of the biggest challenges in food waste recycling.

✅ What to include:

• Fruit and vegetable peelings

• Cooked and uncooked food

• Coffee grounds and tea bags

• Bread, pasta, and rice

• Meat, fish, and bones

🚫 Avoid adding:

• Plastic or compostable liners (they rarely decompose)

• Liquids like milk or oil

• Foil, packaging, or other non-organic waste

By keeping your food waste clean and simple, you help create better compost and avoid microplastic contamination, protecting both the soil and the food grown from it.

The Problem with Smelly Bins and Our Solution

Let’s face it: food waste can get messy. One of the biggest complaints about food recycling is smell.

The reason? Most bins rely on rotting, not fermentation. When food breaks down without enough air, it releases unpleasant odours and attracts pests.

At Generation Soil, we use the bokashi fermentation method, a natural, airtight process that prevents odours while preserving nutrients. Food scraps are layered with bokashi bran (made from bran, molasses, and effective microorganisms) and sealed for two weeks.

The result is a pre-compost full of beneficial microbes that can be safely added to compost piles or soil, enriching it without the smell.

No liners. No leaks. No pests. Just clean, efficient composting and bins that stay fresh.

Why Choose Generation Soil’s Food Waste Collection Service?

Our mission is simple: keep Bristol’s food waste in Bristol.

Here’s what makes our community-led service different:

Local Impact: Waste doesn’t leave the city; it feeds Bristol’s gardens, schools, and green spaces.

Living Compost: Every bucket of scraps becomes microbe-rich compost that rebuilds soil health.

No Plastic, No Smells: We use bokashi fermentation to keep everything clean and odour-free.

Regenerative System: Food waste → compost → soil → food again.

When you sign up for our Bristol food waste collection, you’re not just recycling, you’re regenerating.

Sign up today and become part of Bristol’s soil revolution.

Bristol Compost Delivery: Closing the Loop

Our work doesn’t stop at collection. Once your scraps are composted, we deliver the finished product back into the community as Generation Soil’s living compost, a nutrient-dense, microbe-packed soil improver that brings life back to your garden.

Each delivery is made in Bristol, for Bristol. No chemicals, no peat, no plastic bags. Just living compost created from local food waste.

Benefits of our compost:

• Alive with microbes: Restores soil health and boosts nutrient cycling.

• Supports biodiversity: Encourages earthworms, fungi, and beneficial bacteria.

• Perfect for gardens, allotments, and planters: Improves drainage, structure, and moisture retention.

• Circular by design: Every order supports local compost hubs and community growers.

👉 Order Bristol compost delivery and grow with soil that’s good for you, your plants, and the planet.

How It Works

1️⃣ Collect: You fill your caddy with food scraps and bokashi bran supplied by us, no liners, no mess.

2️⃣ Ferment: Your bin is fermenting before we pick it up to start decomposition and enhance nutrients.

3️⃣ Compost: Bristol food waste is composted aerobically using a blend of wood shavings and biochar.

4️⃣ Return: The finished compost goes back into Bristol’s gardens, farms, and food forest.

Together, we’re transforming Bristol’s food waste into living soil, building a more circular, resilient, and regenerative city from the ground up.