The measures are to be voted on by executive councillors at their meeting next week on Tuesday 28 January.
Councillor Dorothy Hayes, executive member for environment, said: “If approved next week, a new weekly food waste collection would start in October 2020 for all houses in Bracknell Forest.
“This would help us all tackle the growing issue of climate change – being part of the solution. By recycling food waste we could increase recycling rates by around 10% in the next year and create renewable energy at the same time. It’s an environmental win-win.
“Additionally, recycling more would help reduce the financial cost of throwing waste in landfill, which could cost taxpayers millions of pounds over the next few years.”
If agreed, the council claims a weekly food waste collection for every house in the borough would cut the amount of rubbish going to landfill sites by around 4,000 tonnes a year, or about 50%.
Collection
“This would help us all tackle the growing issue of climate change”
The proposals to be voted on include introducing a weekly food waste collection service to all houses in Bracknell Forest from 5 October 2020, changing refuse collection frequency to once every three weeks and encouraging all residents to reduce, reuse and recycle everything possible to cut the amount of waste going to landfill.
The council says the waste saved from landfill would then be turned into renewable energy or recycled into fertiliser.
Bracknell Forest
With a population of 121,676, Bracknell Forest in Berkshire has a recycling rate of 39.4% (according to data from the 2018/19 financial year). This is below the national average of 45.1%.
With the introduction of food waste collection, the council is targeting a rate of 50% by the end of 2020 and 65% by 2030.
It says it currently landfills 7,800 tonnes a year and hopes the introduction of food waste collection would reduce this by just more than 50%.
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