I think food waste collections are really worth doing -they have been really successful here but you just have to beware of the costs that creep up behind you
Steve Whittaker, Mid Bedfordshire council
Speaking at a conference on Tuesday (October 16, 2007) on anaerobic digestion, Steve Whittaker, contract services manager for environmental services at Mid Bedfordshire district council, warned local authorities about the expense of providing starch liners for kitchen waste caddies.
Mid Bedfordshire began food waste collections in April 2007, for 6,000 households, in a project jointly funded by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and Bedfordshire county council.
If the trial proves successful, the service may be extended to the whole of Mid Bedfordshire's area.
When the trials started the council provided residents with a roll of 50 starch bags, costing the council £1.50 per roll. However, due to the popularity of the trial the council had to supply an extra roll of liners for each household.
Mr Whittaker said: “This may not sound like a lot of money but you are talking about multiplying £1.50 by four, then by 50,000 households it adds up to a quarter of a million – it's a killer.”
He added: “The problem is we started off by saying we would provide the liners to residents and if we now decide to ask residents to buy their own bags we risk losing participation – there is a real pressure to continue to provide the bags.
“I think food waste collections are really worth doing -they have been really successful here but you just have to beware of the costs that creep up behind you.”
Bulk buying
However talking to letsrecycle.com earlier this year, David Stowe, project officer at Preston city council said: “Councils can get significant discounts if they buy Biobags in bulk – we place orders of around a quarter of a million bags at a time driving the cost down to 3p per liner.”
Mid Bedfordshire has commissioned research into the food waste trials and one of the questions posed to residents is “would you be prepared to pay for the liners?” The results of the research are set to be published in December.
Mr Whittaker was speaking at a conference organised by the Environmental Services Association (see letsrecycle.com story).
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