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A DECISION to axe plastic bags to line food waste caddies has been met with dismay by residents and opposition councillors.
Last week, Wokingham Borough Council announce that it will no longer supply rolls of single-use plastic sacks, leading to fears that it will cause a drop in food waste recycling.
The doorstep collection scheme was introduced in 2020 to boost recycling rates – and save money.
It costs just £20 per tonne to process food waste compared to £120 per tonne for blue bag waste, while the cost to the council to provide bags is £120,000, although a inflationary rise would need to be added to this.
Announcing the decision, Wokingham Borough Council’s executive member for environment, sport and leisure, Cllr Ian Shenton said: “The caddy liners the council has been supplying for the last two years are not good for the environment – they are non-biodegradable single-use plastic.
“At a time when we are encouraging all residents to decrease their use of single use plastics, it just doesn’t make sense for us to continue to supply food waste bags that are a single-use plastic.”
He added that the residents could use a compostable liner, newspaper or any soft plastic bag, such as a bread bag, cereal bags, or carrier bags to store food waste in.
Some stores sell paper bags designed to fit caddies, including these found in the Sainsbury’s store in Winnersh.
All the bags are disposed of as part of the process.
Residents commenting on social media had concerns that the move is a scheme to save money, rather than the planet that would prove to be a ‘false economy’, which would see people put food waste into dustbins and blue bags instead.
Others said the bags weren’t the right size and had no tie handles.
The view was echoed by Cllr Norman Jorgensen, the shadow executive member for the environment and Conservative councillor for Maiden Erlegh.
He said that when the food waste collection was introduced in 2019, residents had always been encouraged to use use other thin bags such as bread bags as an alternative in a bid to reduce the overall environmental impact.
The first step in the food waste processing is to strip out the bags used, regardless of type, to then be incinerated.
“The Liberal/Labour coalition now running Wokingham Borough Council has announced its decision to stop providing residents with the green bags to line food waste caddies,” he said.
“Instead of removing recycling services, such as the provision of food waste bags, the Council should be aiming to increase the amount of food waste recycled reducing the amount discarded into the general waste blue bags.
“Experience has shown that when bags are not provided food recycling reduces.”
He added: “Even now around half of the Borough’s food waste is still discarded in the blue bags.
Transferring this into the food recycling would have considerable environmental benefits and also save on disposal costs thus saving us money as Council Tax payers.
“I fear that removing the supply of food waste bags will result in a decrease in the use of the food waste recycling and actually increase costs for the taxpayer.”
But council leader Cllr Clive Jones said, at the time of the decision to axe the green bags, that the cost of producing them would have an impact on other services the council provides.
“The previous administration did not budget for these caddy liners, so to supply them we would have to take the money from something else,” he said.
“In this perilous time when costs are rising across the board, it just doesn’t make sense for us to continue to supply these, particularly as they are bad for the environment.
“The council is working on a new waste collection strategy for when the current waste collection contract ends in 2026 and will be asking residents for their views on the options later this year.”
