A trial could start as early as 2008, but the development of a district-wide scheme faces the immediate challenge of finding in-vessel composting facilities in the area to send the collected material.
 Cherwell councillors say food waste could make up as much as 45% of the district's residual waste stream |
The Tory-controlled council is already up to a 45% recycling rate thanks to its alternate-weekly collection system.
A working group of councillors convened to study the issues around food waste collections has said a new fortnightly scheme would add five to 10 percentage points to the district's recycling rate.
They believe the district's residual waste bins are picking up around 13,500 tonnes per year of fruit and vegetable matter as well as cooked or prepared food including all meat and fish – around 45% of the residual stream.
Reporting back yesterday, the group said adding food waste to the existing fortnightly brown bin garden waste service would have “low set up costs as it will use the existing vehicle fleet and staff resources”. Estimates suggest it would cost around 250,000 a year to introduce the service across the district.
The councillors said such a system had “proven success in other local authorities”.
Challenge
Cherwell's portfolio holder for the environment, Councillor Kieron Mallon, said: “We know from best practice that food waste collections are possible, that they can be done effectively and offer Council Tax payers value for money. We've given our successful recycling team another challenge to come up with a pilot scheme and we very much look forward to getting something underway in Cherwell.”
The food waste collection service would begin as a trial, before being rolled out across the borough if suitable capacity can be found to process the waste within in-vessel composting facilities.
| Related links: |
The difficulty at present is that no local in-vessel facilities are readily available for Cherwell to use. Council officers believe that facilities could become available in the Aylesbury area by March 2008, however.
Oxfordshire county council is expected to issue a tender for food processing facilities in the county for March 2009 onwards.
Subscribe for free