Food waste collections 'biggest change' in years

A West Sussex council has introduced weekly food waste collections in a move it said is "probably the biggest change" for its waste and recycling team for "many, many years".

Each house in the Crawley borough area will have its food waste collected separately starting Monday, almost six months after the government's 31 March deadline.

Nick Hilton, Crawley Borough Council's (CBC) cabinet member for the environment, said the council had spent two and a half years getting ready so it "had all our ducks in a row" before rollout.

Research carried out by the BBC earlier this year showed that five out of 13 Sussex authorities were going to miss the deadline.

Hilton told BBC Radio Sussex that caddies and food waste bins had been delivered to 36,000 houses.

CBC wants to see how the house rollout goes before introducing the same collections for flats.

There is no "exact date" for this at present, Hilton said, adding that it will be a significant undertaking as there are 130,000 managing agents in the borough area.

With CBC having calculated that 44% of household waste in the area is food waste, Hilton is hopeful that residents will make the choice to use their new bins.

He said: "We would like our residents to see this as an opportunity to improve our recycling rate in the borough."

Similar collections were introduced by Adur & Worthing Councils earlier in September, also after the government deadline.

In a post on Facebook, the councils confirmed that around 22.5 tonnes of food waste were collected on 21 September, the "equivalent of filling one of our normal household waste trucks just with discarded food".

The councils have been contacted for comment regarding the late rollout.

Residents of Eastbourne, where weekly collections were introduced in April, feel it has been a positive.

Keith Pryke, co owner of the Filling Station sandwich shop, said the collections are going "very well" after a period of adjusting to putting food waste in the appropriate bin.

While separating the food is "more work" for his business, Pryke said ,"we don't mind doing it - it's not a hardship".

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