Falkirk, Scotland: Wasted food fills up landfill sites and adds to global warming according to Falkirk Council, as it sets to tackle the issue in a trial waste food collection scheme involving 7500 local households.
The Council has been awarded £284,000 Scottish Government funding to trial household food waste collection and composting. It is one of only six Councils in Scotland chosen to pilot food waste schemes.
Recent research has indicated that 650,000 tonnes of food waste ends up in Scotland's landfill sites every year.
Three Councils will be operating separate "food only" collections and three will collect food waste "co-mingled" with green waste from domestic gardens.
Food waste produces greenhouse gas, methane, in landfill.
An advantage of food waste only collection is that it can be cost effectively, anaerobically digested (AD) to produce energy, leaving green waste to the simpler, low-tech open windrow composting process.
However the option of co-mingled collection of food and green waste, whilst needing hi-tech treatment of a greater tonnage of waste, leads to efficiencies in collection as the same wheeled bin can be used for both waste materials.
The Falkirk trial will be a co-mingled waste collection and enable 7500 households put food waste, such as vegetable peelings, into their brown bins along with their compostable garden waste.
The frequency of the brown bin collection for garden waste will increase to fortnightly at the same time in the trial area.
There have been moves elsewhere to increase the frequency of food waste collection to weekly, but fortnightly collections have also been successfully operated in many areas. Much depends on local circumstances.
Falkirk Council's Convener of Environment and Heritage, Councillor Adrian Mahoney, said:
"Reducing the amount of food waste going to landfill sites is one of the biggest challenges we will face in future years. Discarded food produces huge amounts of methane gas which contributes to climate change.
"While home composting is recognised as the best environmental option for green waste we have to look at all the ways to reduce food leftovers rotting in landfill sites. This trial will help us explore the options," he said.
Although the trial is expected to begin in the spring, this depends on suitable composting facilities being made available. Specialist facilities are needed for food waste to enable it to be treated to regulatory standards. The norm for co-mingled collections would be an In-vessel composting (IVC) facility.
Falkirk Council has also signed up to the new Love Food Hate Waste campaign which aims to help people save money and the environment by suggesting tasty meals from leftovers and information on meal planning.