Agenda item

(To receive a report by Councillor M Whittington, Cabinet member for Waste and Climate Change, South Kesteven District Council, which provides an update on the separate food waste collection trial which took place between June 2018 and March 2022)

The Partnership received the final report following the completion of the Food Waste Collection Trial carried out by South Kesteven District Council which commenced in June 2018.  This trial was funded by Lincolnshire County Council until June 2020, and then funded by South Kesteven until March 2022.  It had been hoped the national roll out for separate food waste collection would have happened before the end of the trial, but this had not been the case.  The report set out the details of the pilot scheme, the collection model, and the results.  A cost comparison to roll out food waste collections to all properties in the district was also included.

It was reported that two vehicles had been purchased at the start of the trial, however the maintenance costs were such that if the trial was to be continued new vehicles would need to be purchased.  It was noted that 4,500 properties had been included in the trial, in both rural and urban areas, and the food waste had been collected on a weekly basis.

Over the course of the trial the volume of waste collected declined, and it wasn’t clear what the reason for this was.  It was possible that people had become more aware of food waste and changed their behaviours, or there could have been a boredom factor.   However, there was evidence from other trials carried out around the country, that suggested that tonnage did drop off after a period of time, and this could be a combination of factors including behaviour change as people became more aware of the amount of food they were throwing away.

Discussions took place regarding the types of vehicles which may be needed if this was rolled out in future, and it was expected that there would need to be dedicated fleet, fuelling would be critical, as Lincolnshire’s infrastructure was not ideally placed for this kind of activity.  There would need to be a lot of discussions and negotiations with the commercial sector.  The other main issue would be supply chain and delivery issues, as all authorities would be going out to market at the same time.  It would be beneficial for districts to be able to work together in order to find efficiencies for collections.

it was queried if it was possible to calculate the environmental impact of collecting food waste separately and transporting it to an anaerobic digester compared to it being collected and transported to the Energy from Waste facility.  As it was highlighted that food waste did have a high calorific value and so was beneficial to the operation of the facility.  There was a need to reduce the environmental impact of council activities.  The rationale for separate food waste collection seemed to come from the government’s perception that food waste went to landfill.  It was suggested whether that piece of work could be carried out and brought back to the Partnership.  Officers advised that this was something which could fit in to the carbon assessment work which was being carried out by the Sustainability team.

RESOLVED

          That the update be noted.