A report updating on Phase 2 of the roll out of the food waste collection service to high and low-rise flats in the Borough.

Further to Minute 8 of the meeting held on 6 July 2021, the Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report providing an update on Phase 2 of the roll out of the food waste collection service.  Phase 2, which was for the roll out of the service to approximately 14,000 communal and high- and low-rise flats, started in June 2022 and continued to be implemented on a block-by-block basis to achieve greater buy-in of residents and maximise participation.

The report set out the achievements to date following the roll out of Phase 1, including carbon savings, improved efficiency, a net revenue cost saving of £500k and a reduction from 41% to 23% (2022) of food waste being deposited in the household residual waste bin. The report also contained the 2019 and 2022 Binfographics with illustrations that represented the type of waste materials found during a composition analysis of a sample of Reading households, which would be used to inform the Council of where to concentrate its focus to improve future recycling of materials collected.

The report explained that Phase 2 was being delivered in a systematic manner to the larger blocks of flats and communal properties that had shared bin facilities as these required a greater level of support to adapt to the required change.  The introduction of the food waste collections had already made a positive impact on our overall recycling rate, increasing from 34% to 50.5% and the effect of the introduction of food collections had surpassed expectations by an additional 7% increase in terms of recycling performance.  The additional resources and time being taking in the Phase 2 introduction would potentially offer a further increase in the overall recycling rate.

The report further explained the procedure for introducing food waste collections in blocks of flats which included detailed communications with residents and, where appropriate, landlords and managing agents before, during and after the introduction of the service and planning for the capacity needed per block for food waste, recycling and residual communal bins.  To date, the food waste caddies had been delivered to 34 blocks of flats, totalling 800 households, within the borough.  The report added that each block of flats had been assigned a dedicated Recycling Officer to oversee and monitor the collections and food waste usage for a four-week period following the delivery of the new bins, to ensure that any issues with collections or resident participation could be addressed at an early stage.  It was too early in the rollout of Phase 2 to measure any changes in the Council’s overall recycling rate or food waste tonnages, however the communications and additional support being applied would give every opportunity to ensure a positive result.  The rollout of food waste collections remained a priority for the recycling team, and where possible it would continue at a rate of one new block of flats per week to ensure resident engagement and monitoring could be maintained.

Resolved -    That the update on Phase 2 of the food waste collection roll out be noted.