District council trials food waste collection initiative
MORE than 2,000 households in North West Leicestershire are taking part in a food waste collection trial with the district council, which will pave the way for a district-wide scheme.
The trial is part of North West Leicestershire District Council’s Recycle more... plan, which aims to bring the district’s recycling rate up to 50 per cent.
During the trial all food waste – including plate scrapings, bones, meat and tea bags – will be collected weekly from homes in addition to the usual recycling collections.
The waste will then be taken to a Biogen processing plant in Warwickshire where it will go through an anaerobic digestion process, turning it into biogas, which can be used to generate electricity and heat, and also as a bio fertiliser on local farmland.
The first food waste collection took place last month and the trial, being held in the Measham area, will last for six months.
The recycling rate in North West Leicestershire is currently 45.9 per cent. Around one third of all waste in black bins in the district is food – most of which is currently sent to landfill.
Once the success of the trial has been analysed the council plans to provide a food waste collection service across the whole district.
This latest trial comes just one month after the council introduced a trial of stackable recycling containers with 250 homes across the district.
Residents in North West Leicestershire separate their recycling at home, which means the council can receive more money for it by selling on high quality separated recycling. Last year the council earned around £500,000 income from selling recycling – all of which was reinvested in council services.
Paul Sanders, head of community services, said: “We have some really keen recyclers in our district and we’re very grateful for people recycling as much as they can.
“Home composting is a great way of getting rid of some food waste, but you can’t put everything in a compost bin. We hope that these food waste collections will help people to divert even more of their waste away from landfill and help to increase our recycling rate to 50 per cent.
“I’d like to thank everyone involved in the trial and hope it’s a success so we can start collecting food waste across the district very soon.”
Charlie Measham, who lives in Swepstone, is one of the 2,000 residents taking part in the trial. He said: “It’s good to see the council putting the spotlight on a different type of recycling and offering a new service. We’re looking forward to being part of the trial and helping to increase the recycling rate in the district.
“I was really surprised to hear the how much waste created by food being thrown away and it’s great that this scheme will reduce the amount that goes to landfill.”