RESIDENTS face a ‘big change’ as food waste collections in Warrington are set to begin in April next year.
At its meeting on Monday, as recommended, the council’s cabinet approved delegated authority for the purchase and delivery of food waste caddies to enable a roll out of food waste collections from April 1, 2026, in order to meet statutory requirements.
The collections will take place weekly.
It will take the number of bins for Warrington residents to three, or four if they subscribe to green bin collections.
During the meeting, Cllr Maureen McLaughlin – who is the cabinet member for health, wellbeing and social care – said: “I do know that, in other parts of the world, and in other parts of the country, they’ve been doing this for a bit longer than us.
“And I do know, and having done my climate emergency training, I do know, and I didn’t really understand this before, that food waste on those landfill sites is really not good for our environment, it creates methane, so we’re doing something about it now, and I know that that is going to be difficult for some people to grasp and change their habits, because habits are embedded, and it feels like we’re asking something more of them.
“But it is for a good purpose, and hopefully it will be better for our environment, help contribute to reducing our overall emissions, and hopefully we can embrace it.
“I hope we will get a good communications strategy to help to outline what the benefits are, and lots of support for residents when they start off with their new food caddies, because it will be a big change.
“I remember when the blue bins came in and some of the people were not happy about having to sort their recycling out, so it’s another ask, but I hope that our residents will embrace it and see the value of what we’re going to do.”
The Environment Act 2021 was highlighted in a report to cabinet.
As part of the Act, local authorities are responsible for the introduction of a domestic weekly food collection service to all residents, said the report.
“The Act mandates that each residential property must receive a weekly food waste collection service,” it added.
“This service will be facilitated by providing residents with use of 5L kitchen caddies and external 23/25L caddies that will be presented once a week by the resident for collection.
“The Act acknowledges the difficulties in offering a food waste collection service to residents within flats and other communal properties and proposes the use of 2140ltr bins or other relevant containers at the applicable challenging sites.
“Warrington Borough Council was successful in receiving a food waste collection grant totalling £1,863,566 from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) in March 2024, to support and deliver the service of collection of food waste.”
The intention is to purchase and deliver food waste caddies in a phased approach to ensure ‘efficient management of resource and services’.
The report stated there are 98,000 residential properties across Warrington – this is a mix of detached and semi-detached houses, terrace properties and flats.
It is proposed that an initial order of 60,000 caddies will be placed in order to commence the roll out. A further order of 15,000 caddies will be placed within the ‘proceeding three to six months’ to further expand the roll out to residents, therefore meeting the objectives of the Act.