The Leeds-based container supplier announced yesterday (December 14) that it is to provide seven litre and 23 litre kitchen caddies to 56,000 properties in Gloucester, 36,000 in Tewkesbury and 57,000 properties in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The company said it was also supplying 120,000 seven litre caddies with ventilated lids and 18 million compostable liners to Stockport metropolitan borough council. The ventilated design allows moisture in food waste to evaporate, reducing the weight and volume of material for collection.
Jonathan Straight, chief executive of Straight plc, said he was pleased to be helping more local authorities enhance their recycling performance through the addition of source separated food waste collection.
He said: “Separating food from household waste is important as it allows councils to collect residual waste on a fortnightly basis, which saves them money.
“Separating food waste also allows councils to use it to generate renewable energy and make compost, which are both financially and environmentally beneficial activities.”
Councils
For the councils concerned, ordering the caddies precipitated an expansion of collections.
Gloucester city council, one of the recipients of the caddies, said that the containers would be central to its new waste collection service. As well as collecting food, from February 2010 the council will also be collecting batteries, bottles and card from the kerbside.
A spokeswoman for the council said that the move would benefit residents and its landfill targets.
She said: “From 2010, Gloucester residents can recycle more from home. Residents asked if they could recycle more and we have to send less to landfill.”
Tewkesbury borough council also confirmed that from April 2010 it would be altering its collection to include plastic bottles, card, light card and cardboard at the kerbside.
A spokeswoman said: “We're changing the whole system to include food waste and expand kerbside collections. This will alternate with the residual waste collection.”
Newcastle-under-Lyme borough council also confirmed it would be taking food waste from March 2 2010, when the second phase of its waste strategy is set to be launched. The first phase saw plastic bottles and card collections added in July 2009.
Weekly food and fortnightly garden waste collections will run alongside the current fortnightly dry recycling and fortnightly residual waste collection service.
“We've ordered the caddies for the implementation of a waste strategy to include separate food waste collection,” a spokeswoman said.
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