IT’S THE green dream come true: last week was the first time that Wokingham Borough Council collected food waste from caddies and it’s been judged a success.
A total of 66 tonnes of waste was left on the doorsteps of borough households as part of a bid to increase recycling rates.
The council said that before the scheme, 30% of waste in the blue bags was food leftovers. It hopes to halve that once the scheme has bedded in.
And there is a big incentive for the council to do so: from next year, if it fails to hit its 50% recycling scheme target, it could face a fine of £500,000 per year. And recycling food waste also means a reduction of methane, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Instead, it would be used as a fuel.
But there have been a few rotten apples in the borough’s basket: not every home has received a caddy in time for the collections to start.
A council statement said that this would be rectified as soon as possible.
“We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our residents who have started recycling their food waste,” said Sarah Hollamby, director of locality and customer services.
“Last week’s collections have showed great promise for our food waste recycling scheme. We’ve had lots of useful feedback and I’m so impressed by the enthusiasm of our residents for joining us in our fight to reduce Wokingham’s carbon footprint.”
For more details on where you can get new caddies and liners, as well as your food waste collection dates, go to www.wokingham.gov.uk and search ‘food waste’.
