Apparatus for processing kitchen waste is disclosed. In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises an inlet for receiving the kitchen waste, a comminuter to comminute the received waste, a dewatering device to dewater the comminuted waste, a compressor to compress the dewatered comminuted waste, and an outlet to provide processed waste ready for collection, wherein the inlet has a lid moveable between a closed position and an open position and the inlet communicates with a hopper having an outlet, the hopper outlet communicating with the comminuter by a door mechanism, and wherein the door mechanism and the lid are interlocked such that the door mechanism opens to supply food waste to the comminuter only when the lid is in the closed position and such that the lid is openable to allow a user to add food waste into the hopper only when the door mechanism is closed.