Food waste collections for businesses

From next month, North Norfolk District Council will collect businesses' food waste every week for a small charge.

Starting in April, the Council will run a year-long trial trade food waste collection scheme for businesses at a cheaper rate than normal rubbish collections, using dedicated 240-litre wheeled bins. The aim is for this food waste to be composted but it will initially go into landfill, until a composting site is available locally or it is economically and environmentally viable to transport it to an existing site in Suffolk.

The Council is also waiting to see whether a proposed composting facility development goes ahead near the North Norfolk border. If this is successful, the trade waste scheme is much more likely to continue, and the Council may also be able to introduce food waste collections for households too, using the existing paid-for brown bins (which are currently only used for garden waste).

Trade food waste collections will cost £4.24 per lift excluding VAT (just over £220 a year for weekly collections). NNDC will give businesses the wheeled bin and a 40-litre 'kitchen caddy' storage container and four compostable sacks per week to collect their food waste in (more sacks can be bought for £1.50 for a roll of 10). Traders can have as many bins as they wish, paying per lift of each bin, and there will be discounts for bigger customers.

Contract lengths will be flexible to suit customers' needs, and there is no additional bin hire charge.

Through the scheme, traders can dispose of all food waste, including cooked and raw food, meat, fish and bones, vegetables and dairy products, and newspaper or cardboard contaminated with food waste or used to wrap it.

Plastics and other general waste will not be accepted through this scheme, and should be disposed of using standard trade waste collections.

Councillor Brian Hannah, Cabinet Member for Waste and Recycling, said: "We need to be sensitive about the environmental impact of this scheme. In the earliest weeks, we may simply not have enough customers to justify long journeys to a composting facility. That number of 'waste miles' would do more harm than good. But it will be cheaper from the outset for businesses, and the Council will switch to composting as soon as possible.

"We estimate that some businesses may be able to save up to 30 per cent of their waste costs by using this new service. We will keep businesses in North Norfolk informed about future developments in the food waste collection scheme."

Notes for Editor

• NNDC trade waste collections start at £5.25 per collection of general waste and £2.90 for recyclables.
• North Norfolk homes currently recycle 45 per cent of their household waste, and NNDC aims to reach 50 per cent in 2010.
• Household garden waste collections cost £31.98 for 26 collections a year.
• See www.northnorfolk.org/business for more information about trade waste.

ENDS