Introducing Rutland County Council's Dedicated Food Waste Collection Service
Rutland County Council is gearing up for a significant and legally mandated enhancement to its waste services: the introduction of a separate dedicated food waste collection service in March 2026. This vital change aims to boost recycling rates, improve efficiency, and significantly reduce the environmental impact of household waste.
The new service is designed to be more convenient and cleaner for residents. You will receive two new containers: a handy 7-litre kitchen caddy and a 23-litre outdoor food waste bin.
The key improvement is collection frequency: Your food waste bin will be collected every week. This means no more food waste sitting in your main bin for two weeks, ensuring cleaner bins and an improved service for all.
Recycling food waste is a smart environmental move. Here's why:
Energy Efficiency: Food waste is approximately 70% water. Sending it for incineration requires far more energy to burn than recycling it.
Creating Resources: Collected food waste is likely to be sent to an anaerobic digestion facility. Here, bacteria break down the waste to produce biogas (a source of renewable heat and power) and fertilizer for farmland.
Your Guide to the New Food Waste Bin
What can be included? All food waste! This includes uneaten food, plate scrapings, peels, bones, cores, egg shells, and even tea bags. Remember, no amount is too small—unavoidable waste like banana skins and bones can all be recycled.
Keeping it Clean: You cannot use plastic bags. However, bio-degradable liners designed specifically for food waste bins can be used to help keep your caddy and outdoor bin clean.
Changes to Your Other Collections
To support the success of the new weekly food waste service, there will be a change to your residual (black bin) waste collection, while recycling collections remain the same:
Refuse (Black Bin) Collection: This will change to a fortnightly collection using a smaller 140-litre residual waste bin.
Why the Change? Currently, 43% of the waste in black bins is food waste. By diverting this to the new weekly service and ensuring proper recycling, the smaller black bins will be adequate. This change is a vital step supported by consultation results and is necessary to encourage full participation in the new food waste service.
Environmental Impact
The impact of these changes is overwhelmingly positive:
Waste Reduction: The new collection could reduce the contents of your black bin by almost half.
Minimising Incineration: Encouraging residents to shop smarter, waste less, and recycle more could see over half of the current black bin waste diverted away from incineration.
Resource Management: Even the current larger black bins will be processed for recycling or re-use in the new collection service, minimizing the environmental impact of the change itself.
