Joseph Joseph Collect 4L Food Waste Caddy review: smart, smell-free but rather too welcoming to flies

RRP at time of testing: £50 | Check price at Amazon or Joseph Joseph directly

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My verdict

A food-waste caddy is never going to be the most exciting thing on your worktop, but this one by Joseph Joseph is worth considering for a couple of reasons. The stainless-steel finish looks neat beside our microwave and the lid opens one-handed and stays up while I scrape a chopping board. Plus, the removable bucket makes the trip to our HOTBIN considerably less grim.

Most impressively, it didn’t smell. Old fruit and assorted dinner scraps stayed contained behind the closed lid, and opening it after a few days didn’t release the stale fug I was braced for. That held true through six very hot weeks.

The inner bucket can be easily removed for easy cleaning

But… then came the fruit flies, and unfortunately, there were a lot of them. Our open-plan kitchen and living space stayed between 24 and 28°C for most of the test and reached as high as 34°C on one extreme day during the UK’s recent heatwaves. I suspect the same ventilation that helps the filter also gave tiny flies a route in. It was noticeably worse than the EKO, simplehuman and Brabantia caddies I’ve tested. Only the OXO also attracted flies, and not nearly as many.

The heat clearly played a part. A cooler utility room or pantry should be a much less hospitable home for flies. Emptying the caddy more often would help too, but in all honesty, I don’t have the mental capacity for that on a regular basis. 

In the right room, this is a well-made caddy that should last for years. Sadly in our hot family kitchen, the flies stopped me loving it.

How I’ve tested

I tested the Joseph Joseph Collect for six weeks in my family kitchen in Leeds. We’re a family of four: two full-time working parents and two primary-school-aged children, aged six and almost five. The children are fruit fiends, so the caddy dealt with plenty of apple cores, banana skins and strawberry tops, alongside pasta, chicken korma, burgers, sausages and BBQ leftovers.

Our council hasn’t yet rolled out food-waste collections in our area, so we haven’t received a council caddy or outdoor food-waste bin. Instead, I emptied the Joseph Joseph into our HOTBIN composter at least twice a week, usually with a compostable liner. 

The handle makes it very easy to move from A to B in the kitchen

I started with the three liners supplied, used the caddy without a liner for a couple of days, then switched to Tesco compostable bags. I checked how easy the lid was for adults and children to use, how well smells stayed contained, whether moisture or leaks collected underneath the bag, how easy the inner bucket was to remove and clean and whether the handle, hinges and filter housing stayed secure.

This was a tough warm-weather test. The coolest our kitchen became was 23°C. On hot days it usually sat between 27 and 29°C, with one exceptional 32°C day during the heatwave.

Joseph Joseph food caddy: what’s in the box?

Inside the box, you get the stainless-steel outer caddy, removable plastic bucket, flip-top lid, one activated-carbon filter and three compostable liners.

There’s no assembly to wrestle with. The filter sits in a holder underneath the lid and stayed firmly in place throughout my six-week test.

What is the Joseph Joseph Collect 4L Food Waste Caddy?

It sits on the worktop and holds kitchen scraps until you empty them into a council food-waste bin, outdoor composter or another food-waste system. It doesn’t make compost itself.

Inside the stainless-steel shell is a 4L removable bucket. The opening is wide enough for scraping in peelings and leftovers without too much aiming, while the ventilated lid and replaceable carbon filter deal with smells. There’s also space underneath for Joseph Joseph’s flat-packed IW2 liners.

It's ready to go, straight out of the box

What is the Joseph Joseph food caddy like to use?

In daily use, the flip-top lid is the clever bit. It opens with one hand and stays up, so I could scrape in food from plates and chopping boards without needing a third arm. Both children could lift it and add their own fruit scraps too, making food-waste sorting feel like an ordinary household habit rather than another job for me.

The outer handle stayed sturdy even when the caddy was full. The inner bucket lifted out cleanly with a liner inside, so I could carry it straight to the HOTBIN, tip it out and rinse it under the tap. The lid didn’t become noticeably grubby either.

There’s no cupboard-door or bin-side mounting, as there is with the EKO and simplehuman caddies. This one lives on the worktop. Ours fitted neatly beside the microwave near the main bins and, because it’s smaller and sleeker than the EKO, it didn’t look like an awkward plastic box dumped in the corner. That’s great if you have the countertop space available but if you’re fed up with shifting things around, you might prefer a wall- or cupboard-mounted design. 

Joseph Joseph food waste caddy: is the 4L capacity big enough?

Four litres was enough for our family of four, but only because we emptied it at least twice a week. It held our usual fruit waste and meal scraps without taking over the worktop. A larger household, or anyone hoping to make fewer trips outside, will fill it quickly.

Bigger isn’t automatically better here, though. A larger caddy can sit around for longer, collecting more smells and more flies, so the compact size probably helped in our very warm kitchen. 

Families producing plenty of food waste will still find the 6L Brabantia, 6.62L OXO or 7L EKO more forgiving.

It's held all of our meal scraps, leftovers and coffee grounds

Does the Joseph Joseph food caddy contain smells?

Smells weren’t a problem, even after several days in hot weather. Nothing escaped into the kitchen and opening the lid didn’t release the smell of The Bog of Eternal Stench you brace yourself for with old food waste.

The carbon filter seems to be doing the heavy lifting. Joseph Joseph recommends replacing it every three months, and a pack of six cost £15 when I checked. That doesn’t feel unreasonable when the caddy stayed smell-free throughout testing, even on the hottest days.

Joseph Joseph caddy: what about fruit flies?

Unfortunately, it attracted far more fruit flies than the EKO, simplehuman or Brabantia designs I’ve tested. The OXO attracted some too, but the Joseph Joseph was noticeably worse. After a couple of days, opening the lid became a quick in-and-out job to stop the tiny things escaping into the kitchen.

I can’t prove the ventilated lid caused it, but I strongly suspect those air holes gave the flies easier access to the food. The feature designed to help with smells became the biggest nuisance in our home.

The test conditions were brutal. Our room temperature never dropped below 23°C and regularly reached 27 to 29°C. A cooler pantry or utility room should be far less inviting to fruit flies. If your kitchen runs hot, I’d empty it more than twice a week and keep it away from the food-preparation area.

The filter is easy enough to swap out for a new one

Do you need Joseph Joseph liners?

You don’t have to buy Joseph Joseph’s liners. The three supplied bags fitted neatly and were useful for getting started, but ordinary Tesco compostable bags worked just as well. They fitted the bucket, didn’t leak and haven’t torn.

The only snag is the built-in storage. Joseph Joseph’s IW2 liners come flat-packed and slot underneath the inner bucket. The official £32 four-pack contains 200 liners in total. My rolled supermarket bags wouldn’t fit there, so they went into the usual mess drawer with the main bin bags.

I begrudge products that try to lock you into branded refills after you’ve already paid for the main item. Thankfully, this caddy doesn’t. The storage compartment is more convenient with Joseph Joseph’s own liners, but it works perfectly well with cheaper alternatives.

How easy is it to clean the Joseph Joseph caddy?

Easy enough that using it without a liner for a couple of days didn’t feel disastrous. I tipped the scraps into the HOTBIN and gave the inner bucket a hot rinse under the tap, much as I did with the OXO and Brabantia caddies.

Only once did I find a little liquid underneath the liner. I suspect a scrap had slipped down the side rather than the bag leaking. There were no recurring problems with condensation or moisture, and the supermarket liners stayed intact.

The stainless-steel exterior didn’t gather any questionable marks during testing, although it largely stayed in one place. The carry handle, inner-bucket handle, lid and filter holder all remained sturdy. Nothing feels flimsy, which matters when you’re considering spending £50 on a bin for banana skins.

Joseph Joseph's recognisable logo on the outside of the food caddy

Who is Joseph Joseph’s Collect caddy best suited to?

I’d put it on the shortlist for individuals, couples and smaller families who want a compact caddy that won’t make the worktop look worse. It’s particularly good for anyone bothered by food smells, because odour control was easily its strongest performance.

A cooler utility room or pantry is its natural home. Larger families will probably tire of emptying 4L so often, while anyone short on worktop space should look at a wall-mounted or cupboard-door design.

How does the Joseph Joseph Collect compare with other food caddies?

I’ve used the OXO Good Grips, Brabantia Sort & Go, simplehuman Compost Caddy and EKO Puro S in the same family kitchen, so this isn’t a comparison based on online research alone.

Against the simpler OXO and Brabantia models, the Joseph Joseph looks smarter, controls smells better and has the advantage of a removable bucket. The OXO and Brabantia cost less and their smooth interiors are easy to rinse when used without bags. The OXO gives you more room; the Brabantia is lighter, larger and can be wall-mounted.

simplehuman and EKO are more flexible about where they live. Both can move off the worktop in the right setup, and neither gave us a fruit-fly problem. I’d still keep the EKO: its 7L capacity works better for our family and it hangs neatly from a cupboard door.

Final verdict: is the Joseph Joseph Collect worth buying?

At £50, this is an expensive place to put strawberry tops. Still, it’s something we use repeatedly every day, and it feels built to cope with that. The handles are sturdy, the lid genuinely makes scraping plates easier and the removable bucket keeps the trip to the HOTBIN straightforward.

Odour control is where it earns its money. Through six weeks of hot weather, curry, fruit and assorted family leftovers never announced themselves across the kitchen. Replacement filters are an ongoing cost, but changing one every three months feels fair when they work this well.

The metallic design is rather modern and suits our kitchen well

The fly problem is why I can’t give it more than a low four out of five. Without that, I’d happily pay £50 for something this well made. Our kitchen was exceptionally warm throughout testing, so a cooler pantry or utility room should have a much easier time of it.

I’d recommend it to couples, individuals and smaller families with somewhere cool to keep it. It’s sturdy, smart and impressively smell-proof. If you have a larger family or a hot kitchen like ours, I’d buy the EKO instead.

About the author

Rebecca Roberts (aka Beccy) is our resident lifestyle expert with a practical focus on sleep, wellness and everyday comfort. She’s equally at home tackling frank, NSFW‑adjacent topics as she is road‑testing kitchen appliances, mattresses and vacuums that work for real parents. As a mum of two, she writes with the time‑poor, sleep‑deprived in mind - honest product reviews, realistic routines and products that make parents’ lives easier.

When she’s not at her desk, she’s probably product‑testing with her two helpers, corralling a PTA or walking her two dogs up and down country lanes.

About Mumsnet reviews

All Mumsnet product reviews are written by real parents after weeks of hands-on testing. We never accept payment for coverage, and our verdicts are independent and honest. We may earn a small commission through affiliate links, which helps fund our work - but it never influences our opinions.

All prices are correct at the time of writing.

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