A recent drive to increase food recycling in Norwich and reduce the amount being binned has seen huge success with nearly 8,000 food caddies ordered since May.
This has led to a 42 per cent increase in food waste collected so far.
Thanks to new technology at the anaerobic digestion plants where Norwich food waste is turned into energy and compost residents are now able to use plastic bags to line their food caddies. Machinery separates the bags and liners from the food waste. Those bags and liners are then sent to the energy from waste plant to be turned into electricity.
The council is encouraging residents to reuse existing plastic food bags, like shopping bags that are coming to the end of their life. Food bags such as bread, salad or cereal bags can also be used. Residents can also continue to use compostable liners.
Norwich City Council has been running a weekly food waste recycling scheme since 2011, but a spot check last year showed that food still made up around 30 per cent of the content of a Norwich household refuse bin – the equivalent yearly disposal cost of approximately £400,000.
To help make savings and encourage more people to recycle their food waste, the council secured funding from WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) and supplied 57,000 properties in the city with a free roll of caddy liners, as well as a leaflet on food recycling as part of the #feedyourcaddynorwich campaign.
Cllr Kevin Maguire, Norwich City Council cabinet member for recycling, said: “I am absolutely delighted with the response from residents to our campaign to reduce the amount of food waste which is thrown away. Ideally we’d all be producing less food waste in the first place, but for the unavoidable leftovers, using your kitchen caddy makes perfect sense.”
“What’s more, Norwich food is recycled into energy and compost, which is so much better than throwing it away – I’d urge everyone to get behind the campaign and ‘feed their caddy!”
Thanks to WRAP funding, Norwich City Council will continue to provide free caddy liners to residents until May 2019.
More information on reordering liners and recycling food waste
Keep up to date by following @norwichcc #feedyourcaddynorwich
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