Reading borough council has announced plans to roll out a weekly food waste collection service from February 2021.
As part of the scheme, the council will provide houses and flats with 5 litre indoor kitchen food caddies and 23 litre outdoor food bins, which will be emptied weekly.
Food waste caddies will be delivered to all households in 2021
Reading explained that the majority of residents receiving their food caddies from 4 January.
The new service will “play a big part” in the council’s ambitions to raise recycling rates to above 50%.
Re3, the waste partnership for Reading, Bracknell and Wokingham, will manage the new service through it’s waste contractor FCC Environment.
Reading added that the new service comes as 140 litre general waste bins will replace the current 240 litre grey bins, in attempts to increase recycling rates by limiting space for residual waste and encouraging residents to use the recycling boxes provided.
This followed new statistics that showed 8% of the general waste consisted of mixed recycling.
‘Vital step’
Adele Barnett-Ward, lead councillor for neighbourhoods and communities at Reading, said: “Food waste collections are a vital step in
“Food waste collections are a vital step in helping Reading achieve higher recycling rates”
helping Reading achieve higher recycling rates. Recycling more benefits the environment and means the council can reduce the amount of council tax-payers’ money going on landfill fees. That’s why we have set a target for Reading to reach a 55% recycling rate by 2025.
“Food waste will be collected every week: we can all do our bit by using the kerbside food waste and recycling service and only using the new 140l residual bins for items that can’t be recycled kerbside, via bring banks or at the Smallmead Recycling Centre on Island Road. Now that a wider variety of plastics can be recycled kerbside, some households may need a second red recycling bin or box: these can provided free of charge.”
Portsmouth
Elsewhere, Portsmouth city council has also announced that a further 10,000 homes have been added in its new food waste collection trial.
The council said that this follows on from the “success” of the initial trail which started in September 2019.
The council announced that more deliveries of food candies will begin from 28 September, and the food waste will be collected every week. Homes in the trial are supplied with a 5 litre caddy for indoor use, a 23-litre caddy for the collection and one roll of fully compostable caddy liners free of charge.
In addition to the existing 8,000 homes in the trial, the 10,000 households in the trial expansion will cover areas across Wymering, Paulsgrove, Charles Dickens, Buckland, Southsea and Milton.
Cllr Dave Ashmore, the council’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, said: “Portsmouth’s food waste trial has had fantastic results over the past year. I’m delighted we’re more than doubling the number of homes involved, just in time for Recycle Week.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
