The expansion, which begins on 13 October, covers households across the city and district villages. Since the service's launch, more than 2,300 tonnes of food waste have been collected. This waste is being processed to generate power, with most of the electricity fed into the National Grid, and the remainder powering the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant. The collected waste is sufficient to boil three million kettles.
This latest rollout means nearly two-thirds of homes served by the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service (GCSWS) will now have weekly food waste collections. The collected waste is transported to AD plants in Baldock, March, and Thetford, where biogas is captured for power generation. The remaining material becomes biofertilizer for farmland, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating climate impact by preventing methane release from landfills.
Cllr Rosy Moore, Cabinet Member for Climate Action and Environment at Cambridge City Council, highlighted the positive resident engagement, stating, "It's been fantastic to see residents embracing the new food waste service. The more food waste we can recycle, the more we can cut carbon emissions and turn waste into a valuable resource." She added that the sale of energy and fertiliser products offsets processing costs, making it the most cost-effective option.
Cllr Laurence Damary-Homan, Lead Cabinet Member for the Environment at South Cambridgeshire District Council, emphasised the environmental benefits, saying, “Food waste recycling is one of the simplest and most effective things we can all do for the environment. All those leftover scraps soon add up and can be turned into renewable energy and fertiliser rather than going into landfill."
These collections align with the Government’s Simpler Recycling legislation, mandating weekly household food waste collection for all local authorities. GCSWS began delivering new silver pest-proof caddies in January 2026. All households in Greater Cambridge are expected to have weekly food waste collections by the end of 2026.
Residents whose streets already have food waste collections are encouraged to provide feedback via a survey at www.greatercambridgewaste.org/foodwaste.
