19 Feb Trial of separate food and garden waste in Basildon receives positive resident feedback
A trial of separate collections of food and garden waste has concluded with residents who took part submitting positive feedback.
Last night (Wednesday 17 February) councillors on the Neighbourhoods and Public Spaces Committee noted the feedback from the trial of the collection model as recommended by the Waste Member Working Group. Members will review the next steps, to see whether the change is required for operational or legislative reasons and how this can be delivered to improve environmental performance across the borough.
The six-week trial of separate food and garden waste collections involved 99 households across the borough. Overall the feedback from the majority of properties who took part in the trial found it positive and 88% would be happy for it to be introduced in the future.
Those taking part in the trial, which ended in January, were asked to leave out a 23 litre external caddy for their food waste instead of mixing in with any garden waste in wheeled bins.
Currently around a third of black sack materials is food waste, meaning the council are sending significant amounts of additional waste to landfill when this is not required.
More than 80% of those who took part in the trial felt that the indoor and outdoor food waste caddy was large enough and 82% said the liners provided were the right size. Feedback also showed that 22% believe that by having a separate food waste collection service it will reduce the amount of food waste they dispose of.
Chairman of the committee Councillor David Harrison said: “These changes are vital, not only because of the National Waste Strategy and Environment Bill but because of the ambitions of our own Waste Strategy and corporate plan in making the service efficient and environmentally sound, and to be sure that the service delivers for both our residents and businesses. We will be working alongside our residents to make sure this happens.”
The committee also agreed that the cross-party Waste Member Working Group be instructed to review the likely impact of forthcoming legislative changes on the collection of residual (black bag) waste and bulky waste, with findings to be reported back to the Neighbourhoods and Public Spaces Committee.
