Best kitchen bins 2022: Touch, pedal, push and sensor styles

Best: Overall

Rating: 10/10

Opening: Sensor, button

Capacity: 20l + 20l

Materials: Stainless steel, plastic inner bucket

Colour: Silver

Dimensions:  H66 x W27 x D46cm

Efficient, easy-to-use and featuring a silky smooth motion-sensor lid opening, the Deluxe Phantom Kitchen Bin 20l + 20l is the pinnacle of contemporary kitchen bin design.

We found this bin an absolute joy to use during testing. The two colour-coded waste buckets inside the bin are easy to remove, empty and keep clean. And better still, the outside of the bin is made with fingerprint-resistant stainless steel. The bin’s opening sensor is highly responsive, opening the lid flaps for five-second intervals. If you need the lid to be open for longer, you can simply use the manual open and close buttons built into the lid.

The only households where this bin might not fit so well are those with lots of people because the Deluxe Phantom’s 20l buckets can fill quite quickly on days when you’re going through a lot of waste.

Best: Style

Rating: 9/10

Opening: Touch

Capacity: 34l (11l + 23l)

Materials: Mineral-coated plastic

Colours: Red, white, gold, platinum, black, steel, grey, green, beige, blue, brown

Dimensions: L31.2 x W54 x H68cm

We’d be chuffed to have this chic bin out on display in our kitchens.

Part of what helps the Bo Touch stand out (and, indeed, to stand) is its four-legged design. We think the legs look great, but it’s worth considering that they do give the bin a fairly low capacity relative to its footprint.

The boxy design of the Bo Touch fits nicely into a variety of spaces. Every detail feels well executed, from the glossy finish on the body of the bin to the satisfyingly smooth action of the lid closure.

With two compartments, this version of the Bo Touch is ideal for separating different types of waste – eg organic food waste and non-recyclables for landfill. There are lots of alternative colours and configurations available via the shopping link.

Best: High-tech kitchen bin

Rating: 9/10

Opening: Sensor, voice

Capacity: 58l (34l + 24l)

Materials: Stainless steel

Colours: Silver

Dimensions: L33 x W56.4 x H63.5cm

Other kitchen bins dream of growing up to be a simplehuman ST2015 sensor bin.

This remarkably high-tech, two-compartment bin opens and closes via voice command and motion sensing. Using the bin is a superlatively smooth experience. Even when your hands are full, you can open the lid with a two-word command.

There’s much else that’s clever about this bin. We were particularly impressed with the in-built binbag pocket, which you can use to dispense new bin bags into the waste section of the bin.

The ST2015 is arguably better (and costlier) than a kitchen bin needs to be, but if you’re looking for the best quality product you can get, this bin would be our recommendation.

Best: Reasonably priced kitchen bin

Rating: 9/10

Opening: Touch

Capacity: 30l

Materials: Plastic

Colours: Blue, grey

Dimensions: H57 x W21 x D33cm

Friendly, functional and expertly designed, the Eko Morandi Touch is an excellent kitchen bin that won’t break the bank.

Available in two colours and three sizes, this bin is designed to interlock with other bins of the same type to help you separate types of waste and recyclables. It with a sheet of stickers for plastic, paper, glass, etc that you can use to label your Morandi Touch.

We found this bin to be exceptionally pleasant to use. The touch opening mechanism is smooth to the point of balletic, while the waste buckets are easy to take apart and wipe clean.

Best: Pedal-operated opening

Rating: 9/10

Opening: Pedal

Capacity: 30l

Materials: Stainless steel

Colours: Silver

Dimensions: L38.4 x W31.5 x H65cm

Stylish and straightforward, the CW1810 is ideal for households who cherish high quality.

This bin has the best pedal opening mechanism we’ve come across, combining high responsiveness to pressure with whisper-quiet soft closing. The wide, circular aperture of the bin is perfectly sized to accommodate whatever household waste you can throw at it, and its 30l capacity means the bin should go for plenty of time without requiring emptying, at least for small or medium-sized households.

Another plus point is cleanliness: made with fingerprint-resistant metal, the CW1810 was still looking immaculate after several days of testing in our kitchen.

Best: Retro-style

Rating: 8/10

Opening: Push

Capacity: 22l

Materials: Sheet steel, stainless steel, galvanised metal

Colours: White, red, silver, lime green, almond, mint, pink, black, cool grey

Dimensions: H63 x W36.5 x D36.5cm (approx.)

Bins don’t get more beautiful than this. Born of Wesco’s 100-plus years of expertise in making household items from sheet metal, the Pushboy Junior is perfect in form and classic in style. It looks like the sort of bin The B-52s might have had in the Love Shack.

The 22l bin comprises two parts: an inner bucket that holds the waste and an outer shell that sits on top. The outer shell has handles on the sides, which can be used to lift it off without leaving messy fingermarks on the powder-coated body of the shell.

One thing to bear in mind about classic push bins like this one is that during use, one of your hands will be occupied with pushing the flap, which can make it tricky to do messy tasks like scraping food waste into the bin. For this reason, we recommend this type of bin for people who need a solution for recycling or non-organic general waste.

Best: Eco-friendly option

Rating: 8/10

Opening: Manual lid

Capacity: 48l

Materials: Recycled plastic

Colours: White

Dimensions: D34 x W34 x H58.5cm

Simple, user-friendly design is the order of the day with the SmartStore Collect bin from Finnish brand Orthex.

The SmartStore Collect is one of the most space-efficient bins we’ve tested, providing ample room for all sorts of kitchen waste or recycling within its roughly-cuboidal bucket. But arguably the best feature is the bin’s light-coloured birch lid, which adds a lovely slice of natural material to the kitchen. On top of all that, the SmartStore Collect is one of the most eco-friendly bins we’ve encountered, with a bucket made entirely of recycled plastic.

If you do buy this bin, take care to buy well-fitting bags. The lid’s design doesn’t provide many ways to tuck away untidy bin liner excess. We found the bin was easiest to use by totally removing the lid during meal prep and other busy times, then putting it back in place afterwards.

Best: For blending in

Rating: 8/10

Opening: Pedal

Capacity: 30l

Materials: Stainless steel

Colours: Smoky grey, black, silver, white

Dimensions: H63 x W35 x D23.8cm

The smoky-grey Step On Rubbish Bin from Songmics makes a smart, subtle addition to the kitchen. Where some bin designs stand out, this one blends in, with soft edges and muted colours.

We found that this bin’s tall profile means efficient storage relative to its footprint. Just bear in mind that it might be too tall to keep underneath a worktop.

Opening the bin with the pedal mechanism is a cinch. This makes it an ideal solution for people who prefer not to touch their bin lid and don’t wish to buy a sensor- or voice-activated alternative.

Best: High-capacity sensor bin

Rating: 8/10

Opening: Sensor, button

Capacity: 70l (35l + 35l)

Materials: Stainless steel, plastic

Colours: Steel

Dimensions: H67cm x W53cm x D33cm

With two 35l buckets, the VonHaus 70l Recycling Sensor Bin is the ideal high-capacity solution for separating different types of waste.

In our reviewer’s two-person household, this bin needed emptying far less often than other two-compartment bins. Not only is there lots of room inside, but the buckets are also conveniently shaped to handle most types of household waste. The infrared opening sensor worked perfectly, and it was nice to know the lid has open and close buttons as a backup.

It’s worth noting that the electronics run off three D-type 4.5V batteries, a relatively uncommon, barrel-shaped type that you might need to buy specially for the bin.

Best: Compost caddy

Rating: 8/10

Opening: Manual lid

Capacity: 4l

Materials: Stainless steel

Colours: Silver

Dimensions: W24.5 x D14.5 x H21.6cm

The simplehuman Compost Caddy may be disarmingly cute, but it’s also seriously useful.

This tiny 4l bin is designed to store organic waste, ready for composting. It can be used either as a standalone bin – in which case you can use it on a worktop or elevate it off the floor with a stool – or as a clip-on companion to certain other bins from the simplehuman range.

We were particularly impressed with how this caddy connects to the simplehuman ST2015 Rectangular Sensor Bin. Using a plastic dock at the rear of the caddy, we clipped it snugly onto the larger waste/recycling bin.

However it’s used, the Compost Caddy does a great job of storing organic waste and keeping the smells of composting matter under control.