The council and its waste collection contractor Verdant Group plc have announced they will be launching a service to villages south of Bedford from April 2.
 After implementing an alternate weekly collection in Mid Bedfordshire, Verdant said food waste collections are the next step |
Mid Bedfordshire is hoping the service could transform the areas recycling rate – which already stands at 29% following the introduction of alternate weekly collections of dry recyclables and residual rubbish in 2004.
Steve Whittaker, contract services manager at Mid Beds, explained: “A long-running waste audit has shown that up to 16% of residual domestic waste is food-related, and we now want to capture as much of that as possible for recycling. We recognize that while the overall weight of recycled kitchen waste may not be high, every kilogramme we can divert helps.”
He added: “We’re aiming for a high participation rate of up to 70%, and the trial will help us identify how best to encourage local residents to get involved.”
Collecting
Under the kitchen waste scheme, each household in the trial Bedfordshire area will receive a small caddy lined with cornstarch for collecting kitchen waste, including meat. This will then be transferred into a larger outside bin, which will be emptied every week by a bespoke Verdant team.
Collected food waste will then be sent to an animal by-product compliant in-vessel composting facility north of Bedford, owned by Bedfordia Farms Ltd.
Paul Ammons, Verdant business manager for Mid Beds, commented: “We run an efficient fortnightly waste and recycling collection service across the district, and have been encouraged by the way that residents support local waste reduction and recycling.”
He added: “Now we want to help our partners take it one step further by trialling recyclable kitchen waste collection, and are confident that residents will contribute to an effective trial.”
If the trial is a success, Mid Bedfordshire hopes to extend the scheme across its 30,000 households.
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Steve Watson, development manager at Bedfordshire County Council, which is supporting the initiative, said: “This is an extremely valuable trial. We need to reduce the overall volume of organic waste going to landfill and this is a really positive move towards that goal.”
Bedfordshire county council has been promoting the trial to residents in target areas via a doorstep campaign and directly-delivered leaflets. Residents will receive their caddies during March.
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