Edinburgh gets 1.3m boost for food waste roll-out

The City of Edinburgh council has been awarded 1.3 million of Scottish Government funding to help it proceed with plans to roll-out food waste collections to households city-wide.

The money represents the first funding to be allocated through the governments 4 million Food Waste Programme, which is being awarded through WRAP-run body Zero Waste Scotland.

Edinburgh introduced weekly food waste collections on a trial basis for 20,000 homes in April 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story). This included 15,000 households and 5,000 high-density properties such as tenements, and saw over 100 tonnes of material collected over a four month period.

This week (September 12) it began the second phase of the roll-out, which involves the service being provided to an additional 15,000 households, and by the end of March 2012, the total number of homes with a food waste collection service is expected to have risen to 140,000. This represents over half of Edinburghs 235,000 households, with the council eventually planning to make the service available to the majority of its residents.

Under Scotlands Zero Waste Plan, all councils are expected to provide separate food waste collections for households by 2013. According to Zero Waste Scotland, the roll-out makes Edinburgh the first Scottish city to introduce food waste collections for high-density properties such as flats and tenements.

Announcing the funding support yesterday, Scottish environment secretary Richard Lochhead said: By growing our food waste collections, we can position Scotland at the forefront of refuse management and move closer towards a zero waste economy.

Collecting and recycling is not just about managing our waste responsibly, it also allows Scotland to build green industries and create green jobs.

Edinburghs households currently create around 40,000 tonnes of food waste a year. Material collected under the food waste service is being sent on an interim basis to Scottish Water Horizons anaerobic digestion facility at Deerdykes in Cumbernauld.

However, to provide a long-term treatment solution, Edinburgh is currently working with neighbouring Midlothian council to jointly procure a contract with a developer to build and run an anaerobic digestion facility to treat both councils food waste (see letsrecycle.com story).

Pilot

The success of the pilot was highlighted by Edinburghs environment leader, councillor Robert Aldridge, who said: In only four months, 20,000 households in Edinburgh have recycled over 100 tonnes of food waste, the equivalent in weigh to 100 small cars.

The pilots success shows that it is possible to recycle food waste even if you live in city centre flats and tenements. Having trialled a number of different on-street bins, we are confident that food waste can be collected hygienically.

For Zero Waste Scotland, director Iain Gulland, added: Unavoidable food waste is an important resource for Scotland, as it can be used to create renewable energy, fertiliser and ultimately jobs from something that most of us just send to rot in landfill.

Zero Waste Scotland has created our 4 million food waste programme to enable councils and others to realise this potential by collecting food waste for recycling from homes and businesses. With support from householders, together we can make a huge step towards zero waste in Scotland.