Can you put the turkey carcass in a Reencle?

No. A turkey carcass is large and stays hard even after roasting, which fails the size, hardness and cooked test that governs every bone decision for the Reencle. That's not the same as a blanket "no bones" rule. Small, soft, cooked bones that break apart easily by hand are fine. A whole roasted carcass just doesn't meet that bar. If you want the full picture on which bones pass and which don't, see our complete guide to bones in an electric composter.

What to actually do with the carcass

Make stock with it first. Simmering the carcass down is the Love Food Hate Waste-recommended way to get more value out of it before you bin it. Once you've stripped what you can for stock, the leftover bones go in your council food waste bin or general waste, not the Reencle.

What from the Christmas dinner CAN go in the Reencle

Most of what's left on plates and in the roasting dishes is fine. Stuffing, roast and mashed potato, sprouts, carrots, parsnips and other cooked vegetables can go in, in modest amounts. So can sprout ends, carrot peelings and potato peelings from the prep. Cheeseboard leftovers and other dairy scraps are fine too, as are mince pies and other cooked-food leftovers in modest amounts, plus coffee grounds with their paper filters, or paper tea bags with the staples removed.

Small bone scraps: the case-by-case bit

Small, soft, cooked bone fragments picked off a plate (not the carcass itself) may qualify, as long as they break apart easily by hand. You're judging this piece by piece. A soft fragment from a well-cooked bird is nothing like a joint or knuckle that's still firm. Again, the full accepted list is in our complete guide to bones in an electric composter.

The £1,000 figure: what it actually means at Christmas

You'll see the £1,000 food waste figure quoted a lot in Christmas coverage, usually as though it's what the festive period alone costs. It isn't. WRAP's own figure is that food waste costs the average household of four £1,000 a year, not £1,000 extra at Christmas. Christmas dinner is where a good chunk of that annual total tends to get spent, not an extra £1,000 on top of it. The same WRAP release notes that UK households bin 480,000 tonnes of potatoes a year, 41% of all potatoes bought, again an annual figure rather than a festive one.

When your bin collection is disrupted over the holidays

Council food waste collections are commonly disrupted around Christmas and New Year, though there's no single UK-wide date for it, so check locally. Cheshire West and Chester Council, for example, has recently moved four collection days around the holiday period on its published Christmas collections page. The council states directly that it collects more food waste over the Christmas period than at any other time of year. Check your own council's Christmas collection calendar rather than assuming your normal day applies. A Reencle doesn't care what your collection day is doing. It processes scraps daily, so nothing's sitting in a full bin waiting for a delayed pickup.

Overloading the unit over the festive period

Christmas is the highest-volume week of the year for most kitchens, and the Reencle's daily capacity limit still applies. For the Prime, that's 0.7 kg optimum and 1 kg maximum a day. For the Gravity Pro, it's 1 kg recommended and 1.5 kg maximum a day. Spread a big clear-up across a couple of days instead of trying to feed the whole dinner's worth of scraps in one go.

What WRAP actually says about Christmas food waste

WRAP, the UK's Waste and Resources Action Programme, puts the scale of household food waste in a way that's worth sitting with over the festive period: food waste "costs on average £1,000 for a household of four every year," which works out at more than 20 times the average predicted Christmas Day food and drink spend per person. WRAP's predicted average spend for Christmas Day 2025 was £48.19 a head. That comparison is WRAP's own, not an extrapolation, and it's a useful reminder that the everyday cost of food waste across the year dwarfs even the biggest meal on the calendar.

Can I put the turkey carcass in my Reencle?

No. A turkey carcass is large and stays hard even after roasting, so it fails the size, hardness and cooked test that governs bone decisions in a Reencle. Make stock with it first, then put the remaining bones in your food waste bin or general waste, not the composter.

Are cooked chicken or turkey bones from the plate okay?

Depends on the individual fragment. Small, soft, cooked bones that break apart easily by hand are accepted. Firm joints, knuckles or anything that resists breaking apart should go in the bin instead, not the Reencle.

Is the £1,000 food waste figure about Christmas specifically?

No. It's WRAP's figure for what the average household of four wastes in food across a whole year, not an extra cost on top of Christmas. Christmas dinner is where some of that annual total tends to get spent, rather than a separate £1,000 of its own.

What do I do with food waste if my council bin collection is delayed over Christmas?

Check your council's published Christmas collection calendar, since disruption is common but varies by area. Cheshire West and Chester, for example, has recently moved several collection days over the holidays. A Reencle keeps processing scraps daily regardless of your collection day.

Can I overload the Reencle with a big Christmas dinner's worth of scraps?

The daily capacity limit still applies over Christmas: 0.7 kg optimum and 1 kg maximum for the Prime, 1 kg recommended and 1.5 kg maximum for the Gravity Pro. Spread a large clear-up over a couple of days rather than adding it all in one go.

The bottom line

The carcass goes to stock then the bin, but stuffing, veg peelings, cheeseboard scraps, mince pie leftovers and coffee grounds from your Christmas dinner can go straight in the Reencle.

And the scraps? However carefully you plan the Christmas dinner, there's always a bowl of sprout trimmings, potato peelings, leftover stuffing and a few mince pies nobody got to. Left in the kitchen bin, that lot heads to landfill, where it breaks down without oxygen and produces methane. In a Reencle, those same scraps, along with cheeseboard rinds and coffee grounds, get processed daily throughout the holidays instead of sitting in a full bin waiting for a delayed council collection. It's one less thing to think about on the busiest cooking week of the year.