The council claims the project will have a positive impact on the environment
Berkshire homes could find themselves with another bin as food waste might be collected separately. West Berkshire Council has approved £900,000 for the project in its latest budget to procure food waste trucks and bins/caddies.
The council hopes the scheme will save up to £130,000 a year, depending on how much householders adopt the new way of dealing with food waste.
A final decision from the council executive is expected later this week – with the new service then expected to go live in May 2022. This is subject to the prevailing lead time for food waste truck orders placed in September 2021.
The council claims the project will have a positive impact on the environment.
In a report to the executive, it says sending food waste to composting or anaerobic digestion facilities is better for the environment than using incineration or landfill. It adds that it will help the council to improve its recycling performance and make a contribution to the achievement of the local authority’s net zero carbon emissions target.
The new food waste trucks will also be fuelled using hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO) which can help to improve air quality because it generates lower air pollutants compared to diesel.
It is anticipated that the new service will cover both street-level properties and flats with multiple occupancy (HMOs).
The proposed service will involve providing households with a kitchen caddy and a kerbside caddy for keeping food waste for collection.
The council would also supply a single roll of compostable kitchen caddy liner to households at the beginning of the service. The separately collected food waste will be sent to the council’s in-vessel composting facility at Padworth, where it will be used to produce an organic soil improver.
The local authority made a commitment at a full council meeting in January 2020 to explore the introduction of separate food waste collections in the district. This was during the debate about a petition that the council should collect additional plastic waste types.
Nearly a quarter of the contents of the general refuse bin in West Berkshire is currently comprised of food waste.
