Expansion of city food waste collection considered

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, Brown bins in Leeds are currently just used for household garden waste
  • Author, Don Mort
  • Role, Local Democracy Reporting Service

An extra 70,000 households in Leeds could receive a brown bin to be used for both garden and food waste.

The city council said the move would enable it to improve the amount of food waste being recycled.

The authority introduced glass recycling using household green bins in August and it said this had enabled it to consider using brown bins for both food and garden waste.

Mohammed Rafique, executive member for environment, said: "This would mean Leeds would remain a three-bin city, but offering a full range of recycling options."

Presently households in Leeds use a black bin for general household waste, a green bin for glass, metal and plastic, and a brown bin for garden waste.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Rafique said the city already met its requirements to recycle metals, plastic, paper and glass.

鈥淭hat leaves food waste as the remaining waste stream聽to collect and recycle," he said.

鈥淲e are therefore聽considering allowing food waste to be presented with garden waste in brown bins, expanding the current service to be all year round and made available to more households."

Mr Rafique said the authority was still waiting for information from central government on future funding for food waste collections.

A decision on whether to proceed with the expanded brown bins scheme would be made later this year following consultation, he said.

Further options would also be considered over food waste recycling for households聽without a brown bin, Mr Rafique added.

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