The London borough of Camden looks set to become one of the first UK councils to offer food waste collections to all households after starting to roll-out the service to council-owned flats this week (August 9).
The council has already provided on-street households with 25 litre food caddies and has now rolled-out the service to the council-owned Dartmouth Park, Lissenden Gardens and High Gate New Town estates. Privately-owned flats are set to be provided with caddies by the end of February 2011.
A council spokeswoman told letsrecycle.com: “It is the intention to roll-out it to every household, obviously there are going to be some that cannot take the service for some reason but we aim to cover as many as we can.”
Flats are being issued a 25 litre food caddy and an introductory roll of compostable liners. The caddies are then used to put the food waste into communal bins in the estate grounds.
Material collected under the food waste scheme will be taken to the LondonWaste in-vessel composting facility at Edmonton in North London. LondonWaste is a waste disposal services firm owned by the North London Waste Authority – which handles waste disposal on behalf of seven North London boroughs, including Camden.
The introduction of the food waste recycling service is one of the main provisions agreed under a contract extension with the council's waste and recycling collection contractor, Veolia Environmental Services and it is intended to help boost the council's recycling rate to 45% by 2015 from 29.75% in 2009/10 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Councillor Sue Vincent, cabinet member for environment at Camden council, said: “We are very committed to helping people lower their carbon footprints. I am delighted that the council has managed to make food recycling possible for people on estates, even those living in high rise blocks.”
Delivery
Delivery of the bins to council-owned flatted properties is expected to take longer than for on-street housing, as the council has to agree with tenants, lease holders and housing staff about the optimal location for the food waste caddies.
Currently buildings with less than six flats in them are covered by the council's on-street recycling collection service, while larger buildings and estates are covered by communal recycling points for glass, paper, cans, juice cartons, plastic bags and mixed plastics.
In addition to the food caddies, the council is also issuing flats with bags to enable them to separate paper and card from their waste stream and use it to move material to the communal bins.
Cllr Vincent said: “Recycling is a simple but effective way that we can all do our bit to lower the borough's carbon footprint. That's why I was so pleased to be able to announce the arrival of the new recycling service in June. Food waste recycling is an important part of that new service.”
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