THE kerbside collection of food waste is the next measure being contemplated by Waverley Council, as it bids to hit a self-set target of recycling 45 per cent of household rubbish by 2010/11. Thrown away food - much in the national press with the revelation that Britons on average ditch a third of all they buy - now forms the largest component in the average wheelie bin in the borough. Now Waverley, having hit a recycling rate of 39 per cent through the now well-established kerbside collection of paper, glass and plastic bottles, has set its sights on reducing food waste as the most effective means of raising its percentage. But the costs of collecting food waste separately are high, at an estimated £119,000 a year to cover just 5,000 households in an urban or semi-urban area and £1.3 million for the whole borough. On top of this would be the cost of providing every household with a kitchen caddy and food waste bin. With no money in the budget this year for such an exercise, Waverley's executive has instructed officers to cost a limited fortnightly kerbside food waste collection using the maximum productivity of a 7.5 tonne vehicle and crew. Environment portfolio holder John Sandy stressed to the executive that any decision to proceed would depend on the figures. "We are driven by cost. That is the most important thing. "We will be looking at whether we are going to do urban areas and rural areas, flats, apartments, those in disadvantaged situations..." One suggestion is that a collection should focus only on those who are not in a position to recycle themselves through composting. "We need to do this quickly. I hope we will be able to come up with a suggestion, providing the cost is right," said Mr Sandy. At the last assessment, rubbish going to landfill from the average Waverley wheelie bin contained a shameful 18 per cent wasted fruit and vegetables and 18 per cent food that is cooked or still in its original wrapping. Among the incentives to reduce this drastically is the tax which falls on Surrey County Council for every tonne being sent to landfill, which is being ratcheted from £32 to £48 by the Government in two years' time. On top of this are the environmental implications of wasted food, which results in the production of gases and leachate that are harmful to the environment. "What we have got to do is decrease the amount of food that is being thrown away and encourage households to just buy what they require," said Mr Sandy. "I would like to see some action against the supermarkets. I don't want 'buy one, get one free'. I would rather it was half price so I don't have to throw one away," said councillor Robert Knowles. The council has been watching with interest a year- long trial of food waste collections, now completed, involving almost 10,000 households in Guildford, Elmbridge and Mole Valley council areas. Each household was provided with a seven-litre caddy for use in the kitchen and a 20-litre bin for presenting at the kerbside. The participation rate recorded averaged 71 per cent, with those households averaging the equivalent of 110kg of food waste per year. The trial results have so impressed Guildford Borough Council that it proposes introducing a food waste collection in conjunction to its move to alternate weekly collections and replacing its entire refuse fleet at a cost of £4 million. One problem to be overcome is that there are no food waste processing facilities currently available in Surrey, so the waste from the trial was bulked at Leatherhead and trucked to Dorset for in-vessel composting. Surrey County Council has pledged that there will be provision for processing within the county by mid-2010, though the precise provision of any food waste processing plants is not yet clear. With no firm decision yet on food waste collections, Waverley will be continuing to press the benefits of home composting and, in a new initiative, piloting the sale of subsidised home 'digesters'. Up to £20,000 is to be earmarked for the one-off sale of "Green Cones" at £10 and "Green Johannas" at £20. The cone is a food waste digester that is dug into a hole in the garden while the Johanna uses a mix of food and garden waste to produce compost for garden use.
