Sussex Residents Will 'Realise How Much Food They're Throwing Away' With New Collection Trial

Tuesday, 23 November 2021 06:00

By Karen Dunn

Council officers have predicted a collection service will help to reduce food waste once people realise just how much money they are effectively throwing away.

Mid Sussex District Council had been planning to trial a weekly food waste and absorbent hygiene product collection early in 2020, before the pandemic struck.

During a scrutiny committee meeting last week, the issue was discussed again, with councillors being told that around 40 per cent – by weight – of the general rubbish thrown away in the district was food.

The committee recommended to the cabinet that the trial be started and a firm commitment be made to making the collections permanent.

When asked about encouraging people to compost their waste food and not to throw away so much in the first place, Robert Anderton, from the commercial services & contracts team, said:

“The provision of a food waste service is one means through which to do that.

“What happens is people see for the first time separately quite how much food waste they are throwing away and, over time, some of [the authorities] who have been running a service like this for some time, see that volume of food waste diminish as people become more aware of quite how much money, in essence, they are putting in the bin.”

If the council does decide to go ahead with the collection service, the trial will run for six to nine months and will cover around 3,000 homes of all varieties, including flats.

People will be given a counter-top caddy in which to place the waste as well as an outdoor bin.

A separate refuse vehicle will be used to collect the waste during the trial.

A report to the meeting said the food waste trial would be part of a 1-2-3 collection service which would see:

Food waste and absorbent hygiene products collected every week
Recycling collected every two weeks, and
General rubbish collected every three weeks

The committee was in full support of the trial.

Julie Mockford (Con, East Grinstead – Baldwins) said:

“In the wake of COP21, it would be fabulous if we could encourage all of our residents to recycle far more and become a beacon as a district council for recycling.”