Norwich City Council has launched a campaign to encourage more residents to recycle food waste in a bid to increase its recycling rate and save money on expensive waste disposal.
The 'Feed your caddy' campaign aims to save more than £400,000 per year by asking residents to use their kitchen caddies, rather than putting food waste into the bin.
To help make the savings and encourage more people to recycle their food waste, the council has secured funding from WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) to supply 55,000 properties in the city with a free roll of 52 caddy liners, which will be delivered over the next two weeks, starting Monday 14 May.
Residents will also receive a 'how to recycle food waste leaflet', plus a sticker on their refuse bin reminding them to keep food out.
Norwich City Council has been running a weekly free food waste recycling scheme since 2010. Although there are many dedicated food recyclers in the city, there is still much room for improvement – a recent spot check showed that food still makes up around 30 per cent of the content of a Norwich household refuse bin.
Last year, the waste disposal cost for Norwich's food waste was approximately £800,000. If the same amount of food waste had been recycled, disposal would have cost just over £400,000 – nearly half the cost.
Cllr Kevin Maguire, Norwich City Council cabinet member for recycling, said: 'Ideally, we'd all be producing less food waste in the first place, but for the unavoidable leftovers, using your kitchen caddy makes perfect sense.
'If all of Norwich started recycling their food waste rather than binning it, we could use the savings to help protect other council services which directly benefit our residents.
'What's more, Norwich food is recycled into energy and fertilizer, which is so much better than throwing it away – I'd urge everyone to get behind the campaign and 'feed their caddy'!
If the intervention results in a greater number of residents using their kitchen caddies, it is hoped that the council can continue to provide free caddy liners to residents going forward.
For more information about recycling food waste and to order a caddy go to: www.norwich.gov.uk/foodwaste
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