By Cllr Gregor Murray
Wokingham Borough Council’s Resident’s Round-up email of July 15 states: “We’re no longer supplying food waste caddy liners. This is to help tackle the climate emergency and reduce the Bourgh’s use of single-use plastics, as well as saving money”.
It was my motion on eliminating single use plastics from council operations that was passed by this council, but to say that food waste bags are being withdrawn because they are single use plastics is ridiculous.
The solution is not to remove the food waste caddy liners, it is to find another source for them, something that I had previously requested of the relevant council directors.
Bags that are 100% Biodegradable and compostable are available, many of which have a degradation life of 12-18 months.
Wokingham Borough’s participation rates are still not 100%, meaning that food waste is still ending up in the waste stream, costing us significantly more money than cutting liners will save.
Rather than short term thinking of ‘cut the bags – save some cash’, we should be looking to the long term and finding ways to reduce food waste from going into the waste stream, therefore saving more money, sustainably in the long run.
I heard a ludicrous claim that the money for food waste bags wasn’t budgeted, but page 48 of the agenda for the full council meeting shows that £60,000 is in the Climate Emergency budget for Food Waste Collection with the handy added statement, for clarity, stating “They (the above budgetary items, including food waste collection) are therefore all financed by the relevant team and have gone through separate approval processes, so should not be affected by budget constraints.”
Finally, if this foolish action is about tackling the Climate Emergency, the coalition should know that the biggest thing this council can do to reduce our carbon footprint is to work to create more sustainable behaviours among our residents. By withdrawing food waste liners we create a barrier to residents participating in the food waste recycling scheme.
If this council truly wants to cut its carbon footprint then, rather than withdrawing food waste liners, we should actually do the opposite.
A 2020 independent report, backed by CIPFA, compiled for the council states: “In 2023/24 the report recommends a ROLLING provision (reduced numbers at increased frequency) of FREE food waste liners. This would encourage participation in the service through ensuring residents do not perceive the service as ‘messy’ to participate in. They expected a 1.2% increase in the recycling rate by greater participation, creating a greater food waste yield. Rolling provision of food waste liners would cost £190.000, the impact on recycling rate was expected to be +1.2%, giving overall savings £80,000 p.a.
At the end of 2021, our food waste participation was, from memory, around 55%. That means 45% of our households already weren’t participating.
Withdrawing food waste liners will only decrease participation rates, as the Lib Dem Leader admitted in a recent newspaper article.
If the Lib/Lab coalition are doing anything other than greenwashing then they need to do everything they can to increase participation, not add barriers to prevent it.
The logic is clear here. It is the logic that the Conservative group was committed to.
Providing free food waste liners increases participation and saves money, fact.
Withdrawing food waste liners to tackle climate emergency, reduce single use plastics and save money is untrue, short sighted and counter productive.
Cllr Gregor Murray is shadow member for climate emergency and Conservative member for Norreys ward
