Food waste recycling collections suspended

Pendle Council has decided to suspend the collections, partly because of the costs involved.

Councillor James Starkie, Executive Member for Waste, said:

"The food waste collections were set up as a trial, but they have been very expensive to run, costing £100,000 a year.

"There's no longer a need for us to collect food waste separately from Pendle's homes, and there isn't going to be a food waste processing facility in East Lancashire in the near future.

"Considering all this, it seems to make sense to suspend our food waste collections."

For the 7,000 households included in the food waste collection scheme their last collections will be during the week commencing 24th October on the usual collection day.

Residents will be able to keep the food waste caddies for their own use.

Carole Taylor, Recycling Co-ordinator, said:

"We want to thank all those Pendle residents who have taken part in the food waste recycling trial.

"I'm sure it will have highlighted to them how much food they previously threw away.

"As a result, many people may have changed their buying habits to buy far less food than before. That's the positive outcome for this scheme."

The Council is continuing to promote the idea of buying only the food we need through the national Love Food Hate Waste campaign.

More information on this can be found at http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/.

The website has a wealth of information about how to get portion sizes right when cooking, as well as recipes to make tasty dishes from leftovers.

For more information about the end of food waste recycling collections in Pendle, visit www.pendle.gov.uk/foodwaste or call the Council's contact centre on (01282) 661743.