Plymouth food waste collections begin next week

Phase one starts in six areas

Food waste collections will start in six areas of Plymouth from next Monday (March 2).

The service will cover parts of Devonport, Plympton, Plymstock, Southway, Stoke and Whitleigh in phase one and be rolled out to all areas of Plymouth by the end of the year.

Food waste collections for households in England are becoming mandatory this year and Plymouth City Council hopes the move will boost its current recycling rate which is around 37 per cent.

Residents in the first phase are now being encouraged to start filling their new internal caddies with items such as fruit and vegetable peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds and plate scrapings in time for their first collection next week.

Cllr Tom Briars-Delve (Lab, Stoke), council cabinet member for the environment and climate change, said over the past few weeks, recycling teams have been meeting residents across the city who have been provided with a small kitchen caddy to make separating food waste from their rubbish easy, a roll of liners and a larger outdoor caddy for storing your food waste and putting it out for collection.

Some residents who live in flats, apartment blocks or houses of multiple occupation have been provided with a communal external bin, instead of individual outdoor caddies.

“These weekly collections will bring big benefits to the city by increasing our recycling rates, reducing emissions and helping families save money as they become more aware of the amount of food they throw away,” said Cllr Briars-Delve.

After collection, the food waste will be processed at a local anaerobic digestion plant. Anaerobic digestion uses bacteria to break down organic matter into a methane rich gas. This is then used to create fertiliser and electricity.

Setting up costs have been met by a combination of the council’s revenue reserves, borrowing and grant funding from Defra. This has included ten new vehicles, food waste containers, staffing and an infrastructure upgrade of the council’s Prince Rock depot.

Defra has so far contributed £2.5 million towards the scheme.

Food waste collections will run alongside a wider plan to boost recycling rates including reintroducing the recycling officer role and increasing public engagement and targeted communications to target low participation and high contamination areas of the city.

The average recycling rate across Devon is 55 per cent with many local authorities already running a food waste collection.

The council says the food waste collection service has been designed to align with existing collection days to avoid disruption to current waste services.

During phase one the project team and collection crew will have a dedicated period to address any collection anomalies, resident feedback, analyse trends and other emerging factors.