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Oxfordshire offers free caddy liners for festive food waste

Oxfordshire county council has offered householders the opportunity to pick up a free roll of caddy liners to help deal with the extra food waste generated over the festive period.

All Oxfordshire households receive food waste recycling collections via their district council (picture: Oxfordshire county council)

The free liners are available from several locations throughout December, including all Oxfordshire libraries, County Hall in Oxford and Abbey House in Abingdon, among others.

Councillor Pete Sudbury, Oxfordshire county council’s cabinet member for climate change and environment, said the “best thing” people could do was minimise the amount of food they threw away, especially during the cost of living crisis.

He added: “Where that’s not possible, home composting or recycling food waste using the kerbside collection really help to reduce the impact of waste disposal on the climate.

“That’s why we are giving away these caddy liners to make it easier for residents at a time when we know that food waste is likely to increase significantly.

“Reducing the amount of food waste that ends up in general rubbish could save the council millions of pounds – money that would be better spent on other projects to improve people’s lives.”

The council says it recycles nearly 25,000 tonnes of food waste annually, though it estimates that a similar amount ends up in householders’ residual waste.

It would save Oxfordshire more than £2 million a year if all the food waste thrown away with residual waste was recycled, the council suggests.

Oxfordshire

Representing an estimated population of more than 687,000, Oxfordshire county council had a household waste recycling rate of 59.5% in the 2020/21 financial year.

All Oxfordshire households receive food waste recycling collections via their district council.

Oxfordshire says households in Oxford City, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire can use a plastic bag to line their food waste bin, though in Cherwell they must use compostable bags. In all the districts, residents can also line their caddy with newspaper or put the food in loose, Oxfordshire says.

Residents can put all cooked and raw food, including meat, fish, vegetables, dairy products, tea bags and coffee grounds, into their caddies, Oxfordshire says.

As the waste disposal authority, Oxfordshire county council arranges for the collected food waste to be recycled at Severn Trent Green Power’s two anaerobic digestion (AD) plants at Cassington and Wallingford or the same company’s in-vessel composting plant at Ardley.

Severn Trent turns the food waste into a fertiliser, which is pasteurised and stored on-site for up to six months before being sold to farmers.

At the AD plants, the methane given off by the food waste is used to generate electricity for around 9,000 homes, Oxfordshire says.

Oxfordshire sends waste it cannot recycle to the Ardley energy from waste facility, near Bicester.

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