Council reveals how well Preston households are doing with food waste recycling after six months of collections

Preston residents have been praised for their level of food waste recycling, six months after dedicated collections were first introduced.

The city council has revealed there has been a “higher than expected” take-up, with around 3,000 tonnes of leftover, unwanted and out-of-date food being collected from households since the service began back in April.

Food waste kitchen caddies and outdoor bins were delivered to more than 71,000 eligible households across Preston as part of a local rollout to meet new national rules on waste separation.

Since then, residents have been recycling around 2.16kg of food waste per household each week - roughly the weight of a standard house brick.

In August, 430 tonnes of food was collected, demonstrating what the local authority says is a “strong level of participation across the city”.

Cllr Zafar Coupland, cabinet member for health and wellbeing and neighbourhood services, said: “This is fantastic news for Preston and a brilliant start to our food waste recycling service. To have collected around 3,000 tonnes since April shows that residents are embracing the scheme and making a real difference.

“I would like to thank everyone who has taken part in the new food waste recycling scheme and to have made such a positive impact already. There is always more we can do to recycle waste and reduce our emissions, so we will continue promoting the service and supporting residents to recycle as much food waste as possible.”

All food waste collected from households is sent for processing into a compost-like material used in land restoration, which reduces the amount of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere.

The service was supported by a launch campaign to help residents understand how the system works and to encourage households to get involved.

However, a delay to the delivery of the new vehicles needed for food waste pick-ups caused knock-on problems for other bin collections, with residents in some parts of the city affected by missed rounds for much of early summer.

That followed the introduction of a new timetable for collections to coincide with the new food waste service. The overhaul - the biggest in 14 years - saw collection days change for the majority of addresses in order to create a more streamlined set-up. But earlier this month, 3,500 properties had their collection schedule switched around again to address some remaining problems.

Meanwhile, the city council’s active recycling team has also been working with schools and communities across the city - with school education programmes, community engagement sessions and a competition to decorate the new food waste wagons helping to spread the message.

Three winning designs from local Preston children are now being displayed on the vehicles, while one - by an eight-year-old called Kevin - has been transformed into the face of the newly-launched ‘Feed the Monster’ campaign. The food waste monster will help promote the service to younger residents.

Cllr Coupland added: “This is only the beginning. We have plans to build on this success through further promotion and community engagement in order to make Preston a more sustainable city for everyone. Keep an eye out for our food waste monster and get ready to Feed the Monster.”

Further engagement is planned over the coming months, to find out how residents are getting on with the service and where improvements could be made. The next scheduled community events are:

• 2nd December at ASDA Fulwood
• 9th December at St Georges Shopping Centre
• 17th December at Preston Markets