Residents get behind food recycling pilot, but more feedback wanted

In October Southwark Council launched a recycling pilot in 10,000 homes in the borough to encourage households to separate food waste.

The food waste is then collected, with household garden waste, and taken to a special composter where it is turned into agricultural soil improver. 

Early feedback from residents on the scheme suggests that it's going down well, but that some changes would be welcome. We're listening to people's views via emails, letters, and online channels, but we're keen that more people give their feedback on the trial.

Examples of residents' responses include: "The kitchen caddy is great - secure lid so no smells. Easy to use - did a big Sunday roast and had it right next to me whilst peeling potatoes, cracking eggs for the dessert etc. and just chucked the food scraps straight in - brilliant."  

"I'm very much enjoying not having to sort the recycling and our 'normal' waste is down from not much to even less, around two thirds a bin bag for the fortnight."

Councillor Barrie Hargrove, cabinet member for transport, environment and recycling at Southwark Council, went to visit one household to see for himself how it's been embraced so far. 

Mrs Alia Waheed from Dulwich, told him: "I think it's great. I like the fact you can put so much in the brown bin, and that it's easy and convenient. We used to use our compost bin a lot for peelings and things, but because we can now put cooked food into the brown bin we use that, as it's much easier. I usually try to recycle everything anyway, but this is good because we can put everything into one recycling bin and don't have to sort it." 

Councillor Hargrove added: "Hearing residents' views is vital to this project, as we want to make sure we get it right. Overall we're hearing good reports so far from residents, but we're also getting some constructive criticism, such as providing larger recycling boxes, and these are things we will look into, both as it continues and once the six months of the pilot are up." 

At present Southwark residents recycle over 22% of their waste but the council aims to increase that to over 40% by 2014.

Have your say 

Residents can feed back to the council through various channels, including an online survey on the council's website. Please visit www.southwark.gov.uk/foodwaste for more details or email environment@southwark.gov.uk.