New food waste collection launches 31 October

West Berkshire Council and their waste contractor Veolia Environmental Services are to launch a new separate collection of food waste from Monday 31 October.

This follows the huge success of the kerbside recycling collection which boosted the amount of the district’s waste that is recycled to more than 40 percent a year.

As part of the new scheme, every home that has an outdoor green bin for recycling garden waste will receive a new food waste caddy. This is designed to be stored in the kitchen and can accept a whole range of food waste including dairy, fish, fruit and vegetables, bread and pastries, tea and coffee ground, and meat and small bones. Biodegradable bags should be used with the caddy and a supply of these will also be provided.

The bags can be put in either the green or the black wheelie bins ensuring food waste will be collected every week. Once the scheme launches recycling and garden waste will be collected one week with the black bins collected on the other week.

Hilary Cole, West Berkshire Executive Councillor for the Environment and Cleaner Greener said: “More than 60 percent of residents told us in our latest satisfaction survey that they would use a food waste collection so we hope this will prove as popular as the rest of the kerbside collection service. It makes sense as we have invested in an impressive cutting edge composting facility that means we can deal with food and green waste locally rather than sending it elsewhere.”

General Manager for Veolia Environmental Services in West Berkshire, Tracey Reilly, said: “All of the food waste collected with green waste as part of the new service will be taken to the new West Berkshire Waste and Recycling Centre at Padworth. There it will be placed into a special enclosed unit that turns it into high quality compost more quickly than in the open air.”

Leaflets will be distributed to homes over the next few weeks to explain the new scheme in more detail and there is also information on the website at http://www.westberks.gov.uk/waste

A big fuss about food waste recycling hiding the news that black bins will now be fortnightly.

Jeez, it doesnt even mention the black bins being fortnightly. It's not often I agree with User, but there are some press releases that are such unadulterated spin, that they shouldn't be printed.

Quoted from blackdog

A big fuss about food waste recycling hiding the news that black bins will now be fortnightly.

Usual WBC spin then? More truth economy?  

Spin or no spin - it can only be a good thing ! If we all recycled properly there wouldn't actually be a need for a black bin at all.

Quoted from PaulaM

Spin or no spin - it can only be a good thing ! If we all recycled properly there wouldn't actually be a need for a black bin at all.

That would be true if we didn't buy anything either.  What happens to Mr and Mrs Newbabys' soiled nappies?

I hear the new fly tipping site along Burys bank road opens soon

I was thinking along the same lines....  Greenham Common could soon have a new carpet of biodegradable waste for the cattle to deal with....

Quoted from 26

Jeez, it doesnt even mention the black bins being fortnightly. It's not often I agree with User, but there are some press releases that are such unadulterated spin, that they shouldn't be printed.

Yes it does:


The bags can be put in either the green or the black wheelie bins ensuring food waste will be collected every week. Once the scheme launches recycling and garden waste will be collected one week with the black bins collected on the other week.

So it does. I spotted it in the leaflet, but missed it totally there.

Quoted from 26

So it does. I spotted it in the leaflet, but missed it totally there.

Considering that it is easily the most relevant part of the announcement to the majority of those effected it has to be said that the press release is a shining example of how to hide bad news.

Quoted from blackdog

Considering that it is easily the most relevant part of the announcement to the majority of those effected it has to be said that the press release is a shining example of how to hide bad news.

It hasn't worked though has it. We rumbled them quickly enough, as did the media.

Quoted from Muddler

It hasn't worked though has it. We rumbled them quickly enough, as did the media.

It was still a breathtaking piece of spin.

It's more of a shame that WBC isn't asking, but telling us. Seems strange for an organisation to want to pick a fight with their customers by not asking what service they want before announcing it.

I'm in favour of this, but I wish WBC would go further. The Veolia waste PFI contract is worth £3m a year....if the workload is reduced, so should the cost of the contract. That's a saving of around £1m up for grabs (as long as the contract's been written the right way).

An alternative would be to keep the weekly collections, and burn it at a big incinerator built somewhere inconspicuous...say next to a motorway in a disused quarry.

I suspect Cllr Jones (who lives in Wantage) was inspired by his local council's collection service.
http://82.109.175.20/rubbish_recycling_waste/Collections/default.asp

I notice they are giving us 6 months supply of biodegradable bags. But no comment on how much they will charge for future supplies.


I also thought they had only recently said there were no plans for fortnightly collections, so was this just more lies??