Cheshire East Council reminds residents that their new food waste recycling service starts this month.
From Monday 6th January 2020, a six-eight week roll out period will take place, where residents with a garden waste bin will receive a small green food caddy. Caddies can be used in the kitchen to collect food waste, which can then be transferred to the garden waste bin for recycling.
Residents can start recycling food waste with their caddy as soon as they receive it. An initial supply of biodegradable liners will be provided with the caddy. However use of these is optional.
Once the caddy is full, the food waste goes directly into the garden waste bin along with garden waste, with or without a liner. Food waste needs to be collected in the garden waste bin as the council is not able to collect from caddies – these are purely for kitchen use, to transfer food to the garden bin
Garden waste bins will be collected every two weeks. Residents should refer to the new collection calendars for details of their collection schedule.
Councillor Brian Roberts, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for highways and waste, said: "From January, collected mixed-food and garden waste will be taken to a special processing plant in Crewe, where it will be recycled into compost, which is used in horticulture and agriculture.
"I have been trialling use of the food waste caddy myself for a number of weeks. I had a few initial reservations on odour but I am pleased to say these reservations quickly disappeared. The system could not be simpler, with no smell from the food waste. It also made me really think about how much food I waste and what methods that I could put into place to reduce this.
"We are pleased to offer this new food waste recycling service but continue to encourage residents, to explore ways of reducing food waste though our 'Love Food, Hate Waste Campaign'.
"We encourage those with space to continue to compost at home with suitable garden and vegetable peelings. We also want to thank residents for all they are doing to reduce waste and reuse or recycle where possible."
The recent changes to bin collection days across Cheshire East were in preparation for this new food waste recycling service and to make improvements and efficiencies to the collection services.
Residents are urged not to place food waste in their garden bins until they receive the caddy in the new year.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
The CEC portal information tells me the green bin will be collected weekly along with grey and black alternating. I checked this out with a telephone operator before Christmas. This person expressed confusion too.
Is there anyone who actually knows what will be collected starting Friday 10th in SK9 6DX?
For SK9 6DX I think this means a green bin collection on Friday 17 January and fortnightly after that. Actually these are the same days that I'm expecting at SK9 5HN.
https://online.cheshireeast.gov.uk/mycollectionday/
Type in your postcode and house number then click on the link that appears after your home address that says "See bin collection dates for this address".
It will then show you what bins are collected on what dates.
Roger - your black bin will be collected on the 10th Jan. Your green & grey ones are on Friday 17th, then it's back to your black one on 24th as they alternate each Friday.
This scheme is actually saving the council £600,000 a year and giving residents a better service as well. The green bins will now be collected all year round and the food in them costs far less to dispose of than when it is put in the black bin waste. Plus the new six day a week routes are reducing 60,000 bin lorry miles a year as well. These new routes have caused some disruptions but once the teams get used to them, the missed collection issues will soon disappear.
So the new service is cheaper, better and more environmentally friendly too.
Still, I guess you can’t please everyone.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
Is this little bin really necessary? It negates plastic challenge. Does this bin biodegrade? Is this little bin made from reused plastic?
NO.
You also could and should have told us all you would deal with rat infestations as you don’t collect food for two weeks
Thankyou for taking the trouble to respond to my comments. Appreciate. Money saved ? It's a guess. The town is choked with traffic and has been overdeveloped without first planning the knock on effects to our limited infrastructure. The heavy duty construction traffic is pounding roads never designed to cope, therefore pothole madness costing money , damage, and accidents. All efforts and resource need to be addressed there first and foremost, and the luxuries of a little bin for out of date bread should be way down the list.
I know your concerns regarding potholes are shared with many but the current estimate for repairing them in Cheshire East alone is £127 million. To put this in context, the councils annual spend is £300 million.
It spends £200 million on social care for the young and elderly, so that leaves £100 million a year to cover everything else. So with £127 million worth of potholes, the scale of the problem far outweighs the resources available. Unfortunately, Cheshire East cannot abandon all its other responsibilities just to fix the roads.
Decades of under investment have created this national issue with an estimated £11.8 billion worth of UK potholes. Consequently, we can only hope the government will finally invest the money needed to really fix this issue once and for all.
Hi Helen
I understand your comments regarding the plastic but no initiative can be totally free of environmental impact. However, the benefits of this scheme far outweigh any negative aspects.
Food in the green bins will be converted into energy and fertiliser but if it is in the black bin, we get charged to dispose of it and it will end up in landfill.
All we are asking is for people to put their food waste in their green bin, not their black one. The small food bins are for use in the house, so waste food will sit in there rather than people's kitchen bins. Therefore, the chance of rat infestation is exactly the same as its just a case of putting the same food into different bins.
Judith , the bags are readily available at most supermarkets or online via eBay or amazon
I didn’t want to throw loose food waste in my green bin as don’t have a lawn and very little garden waste.
How will putting food waste in the green bin save us £600,000 per year? A breakdown please for arriving at this figure.
So 2/3 of the regressive council tax we pay goes on "social care" and billed as an another extra last year. Perhaps it is about time councils got together and informed the Government that the increase in care costs cannot be funded by ever increasing Council tax. As for the plod precept..... words fail me....