 Food and general waste bag delivery
New green food caddy liners and blue general waste bags started being delivered this week. These will be delivered over a six-week period, with all residents receiving them by mid-March.
More than five million blue bags will be rolling out across the borough over the next six weeks. These are for general waste, with each household receiving 80 bags in two rolls of 40 to cover the period between April 2022 and March 2023.
All households will also receive an allocation of 75 food waste bags. Please use our food waste service for all food waste. When food waste goes into the blue general rubbish bags, it rots and releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. When recycled, food waste can generate energy to power our homes. If you need any food waste caddies check our recycling webpages to find out where to get one.
 Love food hate waste
Did you know that throwing out food is one of the biggest contributors to climate change? If food waste was a country, it'd be the third biggest contributor of CO2 after China and the USA.
If everyone in the UK stopped throwing away food for just one day, it would do the same for climate change as taking 14,000 cars off the road for a whole year. This Valentine's Day, plan ahead and only buy what you need or save your leftovers.
We understand that it is not always possible to save food from being wasted, so using our food waste collection service is another great alternative. This year we managed to divert more than 6,000 tonnes of food from being disposed of - which is around 1,000 tonnes more than last year! This food waste is then used to generate electricity rather than being incinerated. This is a great achievement from our residents, but we can still do more as nearly 25 per cent of the rubbish in the blue bags is food waste.
If you’re not already using the service you can get caddies and liners from one of our local collection hubs. Find hubs and opening hours on our website.
 Reduce your Valentine's Day waste
Valentine's Day is a great day to celebrate love, whether it's with a partner, friends or a delicious meal for one. It’s a great excuse to treat yourself or a loved one but often comes with a lot of waste.
Between unrecyclable romantic cards, carbon-intensive chocolate treats and imported flowers – it’s nearly as bad for the environment as Easter and Christmas. This week we are asking residents to try and consider their waste and make your Valentine’s celebration as eco-friendly as possible.
Every year 145 million cards are purchased for Valentine's Day and those with glitter are unable to be recycled! This year why not show your loved one you care about them AND the environment and try making your own card or buying a fully recyclable one.
Around Valentine's Day, 250 million roses are sold and these are often imported from other countries over seas, all to last for a week - give the gift of a house plant this year. By not purchasing a bunch of flowers you will save a minimum of 1.71kg CO2e on your carbon footprint (15 stems locally grown). If your flowers are imported you could save more!
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