Leicestershire county council is offering cut-price food waste digesters and providing a free service for them to be installed as part of special sales events and roadshows.
We cannot keep sending waste to landfill so the county council has invested £250,000 in a range of products to encourage residents to join us in our efforts
Nicholas Rushton, Leicestershire county council
The Green Cone, which transforms cooked and uncooked leftovers into nutrients, has been subsidised by as much as 60% in a bid to get Leicestershire residents to think about the amount of waste they send to landfill and is now being professional installed free of charge to encourage greater use.
Nicholas Rushton, county council deputy leader with responsibility for waste, said: “We are the first area in the country to really embrace Green Cones which are a really innovative way of getting rid of food waste.”
“We cannot keep sending waste to landfill so the county council has invested £250,000 in a range of products to encourage residents to join us in our efforts,” he added.
Green Cone
The Green Cone, which normally retails at £79.95, is designed to suit the needs of a family of four and reduce household waste by 20%. The Cone can digest 5kg of food waste a week and stands 70 cm above ground level, while being buried 42 cm below.
To work effectively, the Cone has to be placed in a hole dug in a sunny part of the resident's garden and works by trapping the sun's warmth to encourage digestion through the growth of micro-organisms. Once digestion has been completed, the waste is transformed into water, carbon dioxide nutrients and a small amount of residue, which only needs removing every couple of years.
Accompanying the Green Cone is the slightly bigger Green Johanna, which deals with food waste but can also cater for garden waste. The Johanna, which operates with one part garden waste to two parts food waste, primarily produces high quality compost despite generating a higher temperature than the average garden composter.
Leicestershire are aware that the Green Cone needs very little maintenance apart from the initial installation and have attempted to address this with their free installation initiative.
Councils
Other councils have started their own schemes to encourage more residents to use the Green Cones as a means of limiting the amount of food waste going to landfill.
Rossendale borough council and Charnwood borough council have decided to give the Green Cones away for free, while Reading borough council, Spelthorne borough council and Waverley borough council, respectively, have committed to heavily subsidizing Green Cones in their areas.
Kevin Holyer, Reading's head of environment and consumer services, said: “The Green Cone system really is revolutionary. Many people throw away food waste and by using the Green Cones, it is a natural and cost effective way of disposing of it. I encourage residents to make the most of this fantastic offer.”
In June last year, Wiltshire county council provided 2,000 homes with Green Cones in a bid to cut their household waste by 30% and a number of other councils, such as East and West Sussex, have been using the system for long periods of time now with clear benefits. (see letsrecycle.com story)
Leicestershire county council has planned roadshows and sales events for residents of Blaby district council, North-West Leicestershire district council and Oadby & Wigston borough council in July and August. There will also be roadshows and one day sales in September and October for residents of Harborough district council and Hinckley & Bosworth district council.
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