BOROUGH residents have been given food for thought in the battle to protect the environment.
Council bosses are to introduce weekly food waste collections from April next year.
The scheme is part of the council’s plans to recycle at least 50% of all household waste by the end of 2020.
It is estimated that 30% of all residual blue bag waste could be recycled in regular food waste collections which amounts to more than 10,000 tonnes annually.
When sent to landfill and left to decompose, food waste produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
By introducing collections, Wokingham Borough Council claims it can reduce the amount of methane released into the atmosphere and save up to £100 per tonne by diverting waste from landfill.
The food waste will be sent to an anaerobic digestion plant, which captures the methane created by the waste to produce energy and fertiliser.
Cllr Norman Jorgensen, executive member for environment, sports, environmental health, leisure and libraries, said: “We’re all becoming aware of the impact we are having on the environment and so it’s important we do our bit. When food waste is sent to landfill, it produces methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.
Introducing food waste collections will allow us to reduce the amount of methane in the atmosphere, and reduce how much waste we send to landfill.”
Each household will received a lockable 23-litre kerbside food waste container to prevent animals getting to the waste, along with a smaller kitchen caddy and a roll of caddy liners. Food waste will be collected on a weekly basis at the same time as existing blue bag and black box collections, which will not change. Households will continue to receive an allocation of 80 blue bags, or more for larger families, on an annual basis and weekly collections will remain the same.
The annual delivery of blue bags will be slightly earlier next year to allow for the introduction of food waste collections.
The new service will be provided by current waste collection providers, Veolia, who will be providing a new fleet to support the service.
