This was the finding of Somerset Waste Partnership, which runs both food waste and green waste collections on a weekly basis and collects residual waste fortnightly.
” Collecting it separately means we can ensure the right mix of material goes into our composting equipment.“
– Chris Jonas, Wyvern Waste
The Partnership, estimates the cost of about 44 per household for the service.
Speaking at the letsrecycle.com animal by-products and food waste seminar in London last week, the Somerset county council's waste services manager, Steve Palfrey, said: “We did models for a variety of options and analysed the cost and likely recycling rate of each one. The system we are using now gave us a predicted recycling rate of just over 50%.”
Mr Palfrey said collecting food waste weekly and separately to green waste ensures the best service for residents and more efficient composting.
He explained: “We discovered that 27% of our average household's bin was food waste and we wanted to make sure we captured all of that biodegradable waste. There was concern that if we collected it fortnightly, residents would be tempted to put food waste in their refuse bin on the alternate week to avoid odour build up.”
Research carried out since the new scheme's introduction has found that 79% of households are recycling and composting more now. It also discovered that 81% prefer the new service, while 84% find it easy to separate their waste into categories.
Separate
The decision to collect food waste separately to green waste was arrived at through discussions with Somerset's waste contractor Wyvern Waste.
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Wyvern general manager Chris Jonas – also speaking at the event last week – said: “While it would be easier in terms of vehicle movements to collect green and food waste together, collecting it separately means we can ensure the right mix of material goes into our composting equipment.
“It enables us to more easily control the process at our Castle Cary site in Somerset which uses one part food waste to two parts green waste,” he added.
However both parties said that they were still considering how to collect food waste efficiently while keeping vehicle movements to a minimum.
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