New food waste collection will be good for environment

Just two years after the launch of the successful rewards-for-recycling scheme the Royal Borough is introducing an exciting new waste collection service.

From Monday 8 October food waste will be collected throughout the borough on the same day as the rubbish and recycling collections with food caddies being delivered from this week (week commencing Monday 10 September).

All food waste - including cooked food, dairy, meat and bones - can be put in the caddies.

The move is good news for the council's budget and for the environment as it reduces the amount of waste going to landfill. When food rots in landfill it releases methane, a gas 23 times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

Cllr Phill Bicknell, cabinet member for highways, transport and environment, said: "Food makes up over one third of the contents of our black bins and sending it to landfill is simply not sustainable. Recycling our food can reduce these nasty greenhouse gases and save money and natural resources.

"At today's prices every one tonne of food waste collected will save the council approximately £35 in waste disposal costs - this is great news for our council taxpayers!

"I am really excited by this new initiative and am confident there will be a huge uptake by our environmentally conscious residents."

Every household is currently being provided with a 23-litre caddy to go outside and a 7-litre caddy for use in the kitchen. In addition an information leaflet is being delivered separately explaining how the scheme will work, what to put into the caddy and other useful information for the householder.

The waste will be taken to a new, state-of-the-art digester plant being built in Oxfordshire where it will be turned into compost for local farms and potentially creating enough electricity to power 4,200 homes and saving just over 10,000 tonnes of carbon.

Further details are available at www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/wm_food_waste.htm or by calling 01628 683800.

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