Food for thought helping the environment

This April we are starting weekly food waste collections, which will be picked up alongside your blue bag and recycling black box on the same day and time as they are now.

From mid-March every household will receive a lockable 23-litre kerbside food waste container along with a 5-litre kitchen caddie and a roll of liners for it. This is in addition to your usual annual supply of 80 blue bags (more for larger families).

Once your indoor caddy is full, close and secure the liner, transfer the bag to the outdoor caddy and lock its lid to keep the contents safe from animals and to deter flies. This larger caddy only needs to go kerbside on collection day. Regularly emptying your indoor caddy and storing the outdoor one out of direct sunlight will minimise potential smells.

You will be able to get additional kitchen caddie liners from our Council offices and libraries, as you do now with blue bags.

If you currently get assistance with your waste and recycling, you will automatically be eligible for assisted food waste collection.

To begin with this service will only be for houses, not flats. Because flats come in various shapes and sizes with different access and waste and recycling services, we want to get it right. So we will be working out the best way to provide effective food waste recycling at flats in each location and will contact you before we start your food waste collections. So until that time, carry on using your current refuse and recycling services.

Executive View

Cllr Norman Jorgensen, Executive Member for Environment, Leisure and Libraries

“By recycling food waste, we can divert 30 per cent of the current contents of blue bags away from landfill. That equates to 10,000 tonnes annually, saving up to £100 per tonne for the public purse, as well as cutting methane pollution and our carbon footprint. Our target is to recycle at least 50 per cent of household waste by the end of 2020.”

See the caddies and learn more about the new service:

• Council Offices, Shute End – December

• Wokingham Library – January

• Earley Library – February

• Morrisons, Woosehill, 5 February, 10am – 2pm

• Asda Shopping Mall, Lower Earley, 12 February, 10am – 2pm

• Waitrose, Twyford, 19 February, 10am – 2pm

• Woodley Library – March

• Finchampstead Library – April

• More dates to be confirmed on our website

What can go into the food caddy?

✔ Yes please

• All cooked and uncooked foods

• Tea bags and coffee grounds

• Vegetable peelings, banana skins, apple core

• Pet food

✘ No thank you!

• Cling film, wrapping and tin foil

• Pots, trays

• Liquids

• Garden waste

• Pet mess, litter or bedding

More information: www.wokingham.gov.uk (search ‘rubbish and recycling’) (0118) 974 6000