Food waste recycling introduced by the Council in October 2010 is proving a massive success with official projections that residents will smash the 10,000 tonne barrier by the end of the year since they were introduced.
The Council is putting significant efforts into encouraging as many households as possible to use their food waste container to reduce costs to the local taxpayer through costly landfill tax charges, cut carbon emissions, and make the streets cleaner by avoiding leftovers being ripped out of black sacks by animals.
Councillor David Dixon (Lib-Dem, Oldfield), Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said, “It is excellent news that so many households are taking advantage of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s weekly food waste recycling service. Reaching the ten thousand tonne barrier by the end of the year would be a terrific community achievement.
“People tell us that they are pleased with the service being so easy and convenient, mainly using compostable liners for things like fruit, bread, and peelings although all food can be put out for collection, including bones.
“We need to continue to hammer the message home about how important it is for people to take part because more than a third of the content of the average bin is food waste that we could recycle. Our monitoring tells us that half of households recycle their food waste, which leaves the other half who need more convincing. The Council will be taking more steps to do this through our regular recycling road shows, targeted work in local communities, and reminding people through on-going campaigning.”
People can learn more about food waste recycling included a short video about how to use their container at www.bathnes.gov.uk/foodwaste or contact Council Connect for more information.
Food waste in figures:
- 4,296 – tonnes recycled in the first full year of food waste collections;
- 10,600+ – tonnes predicted to be recycled by the end of this financial year since October 2010;
- 52% – proportion of households we estimate using the service in November 2011. More monitoring will take place this November;
- 820 – people who have filled in our food waste feedback surveys at Council road shows, received food waste advice, and ordered containers if needed;
- 35% – the amount of waste in an average household bin which is food waste and could potentially go to landfill if not recycled.
The Council works with the national Love Food Hate Waste campaign www.lovefoodhatewaste.com to help residents save money and help the environment by reducing the amount of avoidable food they throw away.
Composting is also a viable option to reduce food waste – more information can be found in the ‘Garden waste and compost’ section of www.bathnes.gov.uk/wasteservices.
