The plans to expand food waste collection to all of the county’s waste collection authorities were approved at a meeting held on 23 June 2025. The decision was taken to meet legislative requirements to collect food waste separately from all households for recycling through anaerobic digestion (AD) by April 2026.
While some waste collection authorities currently operate food waste collections, the move will see all Hampshire waste collection authorities introduce food waste collections between now and next year.
In Hampshire, food waste collections are currently operated by Eastleigh borough council, Rushmoor borough council and Portsmouth city council, with New Forest district council phasing in this service.
The county council has a long-term waste disposal contract with Veolia. However, the documents from the council meeting noted that “there is no anaerobic digestion facility within the network of waste facilities managed by Veolia through the long-term waste disposal contract, so there is no option but to secure third party processing offtake capacity”.
The county council’s cabinet lead member for universal services, Councillor Kirsty North, said: “The introduction of separate food waste collections from every Hampshire household will ensure that food waste can be sent to anaerobic digestion facilities and used to create new products rather than lost to disposal. It will also help keep contamination of dry waste materials down.”
Cllr North also noted that this decision follows a recent approval of plans to build a £50.5 million materials recovery facility (MRF) in Eastleigh which is expected to be operational by the end of 2027. The facility is set to enable residents to recycle a wider range of plastics, including pots, tubs, trays, cartons and soft plastic film.
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