Herefordshire food waste to be collected next year

Food waste collections will start in Herefordshire next year - with council chiefs vowing to make it simple for the public to understand.

A weekly pick-up will launch from September 2027, almost 18 months after the government made it a legal requirement across England.

Under the plan in Herefordshire, about 85,000 homes will get two new caddies - a small type of bin - for their discarded food, one of which will sit in the kitchen.

Elissa Swinglehurst, Herefordshire Council's deputy leader, said: "It's an opportunity for us all to waste as little as possible."

The delay in launching food waste collections was due to a stand-off with central government over the funding, but a financial settlement is now in place.

It will cost £3.7m to get off the ground, alongside annual running costs of about £1.6 million.

But the council says it will save £119 for every tonne of discarded food that no longer needs to be sent to an "energy from waste" facility.

Under the plan, each household will get a small seven-litre caddy for their kitchen, and a larger 23-litre lockable caddy that will remain outside the property for weekly collection.

Swinglehurst said: "Our farmers work so hard to produce the food - we should all ensure that we don't waste any of it.

"I grew up in a household where leftovers were always turned into something else, so we wasted very little food - this is about getting back to those ways, really."

The project has been approved by the council's Conservative cabinet, which rejected a phased approach in favour of a county-wide rollout in September next year.

A major publicity drive will launch next year in a bid to drum up interest in, and awareness of, the collections.

The council also said it would attempt to launch a "customed" service for about 6,000 homes across the county which have access issues, like flats.

Swinglehurst said: "Recycling food waste separately will help us reduce the amount of waste in general rubbish bins, improve recycling rates and make the most of the government funding we've secured to introduce this new service."

About 6,500 tonnes of food waste is expected to be collected each year under the scheme.

The government made it an obligation for councils across England to collect food waste from April this year, but more than 70 of them have yet to do so.

The main delay has been due to funding, with constant negotiations taking place between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the local authorities, resulting in a postcode lottery scenario.

In Worcestershire, Malvern will be the first area to get the collections from this October, with Worcester doing the same in the spring of next year.

But elsewhere the picture is still unclear - Wyre Forest District Council has told the BBC it still has serious concerns over the cost, and will only launch a service once it is satisfied with its funding offer.

Councils in Redditch and Bromsgrove also have no estimated dates in mind yet, while Wychavon District Council said it was not expecting to launch a service until 2028, with "value for money" cited as one of the factors.

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