Table 6.

Frequency of themes alongside example quotes depicting reasons for not recycling food waste via local services.

COM-B	Themes	Sub-Themes	Example Quotes
Physical opportunity	Recycles food waste in other ways (n = 97)	- does home composting (n = 76) - feeds food waste to pets/local wildlife (n = 10) - puts it in garden waste (n = 9) - uses neighbour’s bin (n = 2)	“I compost it myself”; “…anything we do not eat goes to birds, foxes/strays...” “It goes in the green garden waste bin, together with perennial weeds, woody garden waste, etc.”; “Very very occasionally we put something (such as meat bones, which we seldom have) into our neighbours’ food recycling bin.”
Physical opportunity	Produces no/minimal food waste (n = 20)		“I don’t produce any food waste”
Automatic motivation	Pests/hygiene (n = 18)	- Smell/hygiene (n = 9) - Pests (n = 9)	“The smell and hygiene associated.”; “Our previous experience is that it attracts a lot of flies and unsanitary bacteria to the house.”; “I [don’t] want it to make the house smell or attract mice/rats etc”
Physical opportunity	Follows plant-based diet (n = 17)		“Because we eat a vegetarian diet, we put all our food waste in the bin”
Physical opportunity	Cost (n = 15)	- too much effort/hassle to recycle food waste (n = 12) - compostable bags perceived as too expensive (n = 3)	“It’s too much hassle”; “[I] live alone and don’t produce enough food waste to make it worthwhile”; “Living in a small top floor flat, it’s not convenient to store the food waste bin in a small kitchen and have to carry it down stairs. No one in the building (four flats) uses any of the food waste bins—I think for similar reasons.” “The bags the council insist we use inside our food waste bins are so expensive!”
Physical opportunity	Service-related factors (n = 12)	- unreliable food waste collection services (n = 9) - council does not provide free food waste bins (n = 2) - council only provides non- compostable bags (n = 1)	“It’s never collected and it stinks”; “We are not given a bin for food waste where we live.”; “Our council supply us with single use polythene bags as liners, rather than compostable material”
Physical opportunity	Household related factors (n = 10)	- no space within home (n = 6) - no space for an extra food waste bin outside (n = 2) - no bin at home (n = 1) - not responsible for household decisions (n = 1)	“We don’t have space in our (rented) kitchen for an additional bin on top of the general and recycling bins.”; “I have room for 3 wheelie bins outside my house, but I have 4 bins. I have chosen to leave the food/garden waste bin out of the way in my garage. It therefore doesn’t get used……”; “We don’t have a separate food waste bin” “My parents manage the food waste and they have chosen not to do so. I do not know their reasons for this.”
Psychological capability	Lack of knowledge/awareness (n = 4)	- does not understand point of recycling (n = 3) - lacks knowledge on how to recycle food waste (n = 1)	“We just never have, no reason really, would be good to know what happens to food waste what are the benefits of putting it in a separate bin?”; “not sure how to.”