Wokingham Borough residents will be joining the fight to improve our carbon footprint as food waste collections start next week, 1 April.
Each household will have a lockable 23-litre kerbside food waste container to prevent animals getting to the waste, along with a smaller kitchen caddy and a roll of caddy liners.
Food waste will be collected on a weekly basis at the same time as existing blue bag and black box collections, which will not change. A brand new fleet of waste collection vehicles will be supporting this new self-sufficient service – allowing residual, mixed recycling and food waste to be collected in the same vehicle.
The food waste will be sent to an anaerobic digestion plant, which captures the methane created by the waste to produce energy and fertiliser. Almost all forms of food waste can be collected including cooking oil, which should be stored in a sealed plastic bottle inside the locked kerbside container. The food waste bags will be removed prior to the anaerobic digestion process and sent to an energy recovery facilities where they will be incinerated to generate energy.
Sarah Hollamby, director of locality and customer services said “Methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, is produced by decomposing food waste. By introducing a food waste collection service we are able to capture this methane and turn it into energy – while also preventing it from entering the atmosphere.”
For more information on where you can collect caddies from go to www.wokingham.gov.uk (search ‘food waste collections’).
