Melton councillors to discuss new food waste collections

If approved, it would see each home issued with a seven-litre internal caddy and a 23-litre external caddy for food.

Melton Borough Council currently pays Biffa about £1.9million a year for making alternate collections of black bins (general residual waste) and brown bins (recycled materials).

Garden waste is also collected for 9,200 borough residents who pay a subscription fee for the service to Biffa.

Members of the council’s cabinet will be recommended to support separate additional weekly collections of the new food waste caddies rather than combining these with the fortnightly green bin collections as it would likely mean the loss of the fees which contribute towards a more affordable waste contract for the council.

The government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated £564,000 to the borough council to buy vehicles to collect food waste and the containers for residents.

A report to go before the cabinet meeting, which is on Tuesday, states this funding ‘is not sufficient to cover all the capital costs associated with the roll out of a new food waste collection in Melton, which creates a financial risk and further burden on the Council’s limited capital resources’.

The council has appealed to Defra to release more funding for food waste collections, which is part of a nationwide drive to increase the amount of household recycling at doorsteps.

Officials predict that Melton borough will need to buy five food waste collection vehicles – four 12-tonne lorries at a cost of £140,000 each plus a 7.5-tonne vehicle priced around £130,000.

Extra funding needed to facilitate the new food waste collections may have to come from the council’s own finances if the government does not provide more money for it.

The first food waste collections in Melton borough are scheduled for April next year.

The 10-year waste contract with Biffa runs until October 2028 and is one of the biggest spend areas for the council.

It is likely the contract would have to be negotiated to take into account the extra food waste collections, the cabinet report states.