Around 60,000 properties across Stafford Borough will be receiving food waste caddies from this week as part of a Government initiative.

The national move is aimed at increasing the amount of food households across the country currently recycle – with the new weekly food waste collection service to get underway from Monday 13 April.  

Residents will be receiving two new containers for their leftover food for the new service. A small internal seven-litre kitchen caddy, a larger 23-litre external kerbside caddy, and a roll of liners will be delivered to households along with detailed instructions of how the new service will work.

The kerbside caddy will be collected alongside the green, blue and brown bins. There will be no additional charge to borough residents for the new equipment or the service.  

The food waste will go to an ‘anaerobic digestion’ plant to be converted into energy and the digestate produced used in agriculture to improve soil.  

Cabinet Member for Environment at Stafford Borough council, Ian Fordham, said: “The Government requires all councils to provide this separate food collection in what is a major change to our waste and recycling service.

“The new service has been funded by central Government and will be run alongside our residents’ usual recycling and waste collection days.”  

Among the items that can go in the new caddies are:  

• Fruit and vegetables - including peelings.
• Fish, meat and bones.
• Tea bags and coffee grounds.
• Eggs and dairy products.

The caddies cannot be used for liquids, oils or fats, garden waste or food packaging.

Food waste makes up around a third of household rubbish which is currently incinerated with the average household throwing away around £800 of edible grub each year.

The borough already recycles around 45 percent of what households throw out.

See more information on the new service at www.staffordbc.gov.uk/food-waste

Press Release No 6276