Household waste is the waste left over after you have remo­ved the recyclable and organic waste. Household waste must be placed in the black wheelie 'restaffald' bin found next to your house or apartment.

Recyclable waste must be rinsed of food or product residuals and put in the recycling containers. Dependent upon your type of housing, you will either be provided with individual recycling bins or have access to communal recycling containers, which are placed in common areas.

The following materials can be recycled:

Paper & cardboard:

• Yes - newspapers, magazines, books, advertising materials, cardboard.
• No - paper with food residuals (pizza boxes, juice cartons, etc), gift and wrapping paper

Glass:

• Yes - bottles, glasses and jars
• No - heatsafe glass, ceramics, porcelain

Metals :

• Yes - beer and soft drink cans, tinned food cans, metal container lids, aluminium food trays, all-metal pots and frying pans, coffee capsules
• No - spray cans

Textiles :

• Yes - un-repairable clothing, textiles with holes, and worn out linens, sheets, pillows, curtains, table clothes, yarn and fabrics
• No - dirty, oily or chemical soaked textiles

Plastic:

• Yes - soft, semi-soft and hard plastics including food bags, food containers, plastic film, bubble wrap, cosmetics and cleaning containers, fruit and vegetable packaging, drink bottles and lids, and other similar types of plastic containers
• No - melamin plates and utensils, fruit netting, plastic with foil lining such as chips or coffee bean bags, 

Small electronics and hazardous waste can be disposed of in the red environmental box ('miljøkasse') including light globes, paint, small batteries. Contact the Waste Disposal Dept. on 76 16 16 16 if your household does not have an environmental box or drop these items at a municipal recycling centre ('genbrugsplads')

Other types of recyclable waste must be delivered to a municipal recycling centre.

Note, food & drink cartons can be handed in for recycling at recycling centres.

The bins you will have access to depends on the type of housing you live in. 

If you live in an apartment, you will most likely have access to the following shared containers placed nearby the building or to containers dug into the ground:

• Black container for household waste - 'restaffald'
• Black container with brown lid for food waste - 'madaffald'
• Either a blue wheelie bin or a light green mini-container for clean paper and cardboard - 'papir & pap'
• Blue container or a dark green mini-container for recyclable waste (bottles /glass jars –plastics – all types of metals). - 'plast, metal & glas'
• Black bin with pictogram for textile waste - 'tekstilaffald'

If you live in a house you will most likely have the following individual bins placed at your household:

• Black bin for household waste - 'restaffald'
• Black container with brown lid for food waste - 'madaffald'
• Blue bin for clean paper and textile waste -  'papir & pap'
• Dark green bin for clean glass, cans and plastic - ''plast, metal & glas'
• Red environmental box ('miljøkasse') for small electronics and dangerous waste (light globes, paint, small batteries) - 'farligt affald'

In addition you can order:

• A green (light green) bin for garden waste - 'haveaffald-  at the municipality for a small fee

Certain rules apply to how and where you place your waste bins, so that they can be safely and easily accessed on collection days.  

Household waste and food waste will be collected from your property unless the containers are not easily accessible as per applicable regulations. Then you must place the containers at the curbside. Recycling containers are emptied from the curbside unless you have a country property with a fixed site.

Be aware that:

• On collection days, you must place the containers at the curbside no later than 6:00AM in Esbjerg city center and on properties in the countryside. In the rest of the municipality, bins are emptied from 7:00AM.
• The containers must be positioned with the handles facing the street.
• The containers must not be overfilled.

The municipality offers an online service (in Danish) to find out when your household waste and recycling will be collected. You simply provide your address (or the address of the applicable waste container/receptacle) and the next applicable collection dates will be provided.

You can also register to receive SMS reminders for when your waste will be collected.

Find your next Recycling & Household Waste Collection Dates

*Note that if you cannot find your own address, it is because you share a waste container with several households. You can find information on applicable waste collection by entering the address where the shared waste container is located.

Good to know:

• Recyclable containers of foods, cosmetics, cleaning or other products should be rinsed before disposal. 
• Paper and cardboard that has come in contact with foods or cannot be wiped of other residuals should be disposed of in the general waste. 
• Expired medications and medical products can be delivered to your nearest pharmacy /apotek for disposal.
• Ignitable and highly flammable items and their containers, such as fire starter fluid/blocks, fuels, gas bottles, and fireworks must be delivered directly to a municipal recycling center - 'genbrugsplads'.

Useful terms:

'Vej' – Street
'Husnr.' – House/building number
'Tømningsdage' – Collection days
'Dagrenovation' – Household waste
'Genbrug' – Recycling
'Haveaffald' – Garden waste
'Papirspand' – Waste container for recyclable paper and clean cardboard
'Miljøkasse' – Waste container for small electronics and dangerous waste (light globes, paint, gas canisters)

Often, your neighbours will already be familiar with the waste collection rules and may be able to offer some insight, or visit the municipality’s Household Waste or Recyclable Waste pages (in Danish) to find more information.

Why do we separate food waste?

Food waste is just too good to throw out. It can be used to create biogas and natural fertilizer. Therefore, we need to separate food waste into its own wheelie bin. The regular garbage will still go to the regular bin for household waste.

The food waste must be put in the green plastic bags and the bags disposed of in the outdoor food bin - black bin with a brown lid labelled 'madaffald'.

The food waste bin is emptied by the municipality every 2 weeks. 

Plastic bags for your food waste

If you have your own bin for food waste, you can get more food waste bags by tying a green food waste bag to the handle of the food bin. The garbage collector will then put a roll of bags on the lid after it is emptied.

If you live in a housing association, you must contact your janitor when you need bags.

If you live in an apartment building and share a food bin with others, bags for food waste are delivered once a year. Contact the Waste Office on 76 16 16 16 to find out when.

You can also collect the green food waste bags for free at all four municipal recycling sites and at libraries and citizen service centers.

You can also order extra plastic bags at our webshop here. The bags are free, but you will be charged for delivery. 

Tie a knot on the plastic bag

We suggest that you tie a double knot on your plastic bag. It is important that you close your bags very well to avoid smell and maggots. If the bag is closed really well, the smell will not attract flies. It is important to avoid that flies lay eggs in your food waste, because it will later turn into maggots.

This is how you separate your food waste

Yes to:

• Meat and fish waste, also bones
• Sauces, kitchen grease and frying oil
• Dairy products
• Eggs and shells
• Bread and dessert leftovers
• Fruit and vegetables, also peelings and cut-offs
• Rice and Pasta
• Coffee grounds, Tea leftovers as well as used filters
• Paper towels used with food products

No thank you to:

• Animal excrements and feces
• Packaging
• Hay and straw used for animals
• Animal hair and fur

Did you know that a portion of district heating is fueled by your general waste? Highly efficent waste burners help to warm the water for district heating. Removing food waste helps keep that efficiency optimised.