The borough council takes action on food waste

The borough council will be supporting Food Waste Action Week by distributing free food caddies and bags at Docking Market and a couple of local schools. As well as social media messages reminding residents of the importance of using their weekly food waste collections.

Cllr Sandra Squire, Cabinet member for Environment and Coastal, said: “Collecting food waste in caddies is the most environmentally friendly thing you can do with food waste other than reducing the amount of it in the first place. I urge residents to take make use of the weekly collections that happen with their waste or recycling collection.

“The average household creates between 2 and 3 kg of food waste every week. Across West Norfolk, in a year, it would be about 10,000 tonnes and I believe that we could recycle around 5000 tonnes of that.”

200 free caddies and liners were collected by residents at the market in Downham Market last week and a further 100 were picked up when our team were in King's Lynn town centre (12 March in King's Lynn and 15 March in Downham Market) so residents could start their food waste collections in time for Food Waste Action Week.

Cllr Squire added: “Using your kitchen caddy and putting your large grey food waste caddy out for collection with your waste or recycling collection each week reduces CO2, can create electricity to power our homes and creates nutrient rich biofertilizer used by farmers to grow crops.”

Barry Brandford, Waste and Recycling Manager at the borough council, said: “We recycle 1800 tonnes of food waste in West Norfolk but pre-covid we were recycling over 3000 tonnes each year. We need your help to make sure that food waste doesn’t end up in the refuse bin. If you’ve lost or misplaced your kitchen caddy or large grey outdoor food waste caddy please ask for a free replacement at west-norfolk.gov.uk/yourbins.”

Staff from the borough council will be at Docking Market this week – 20 March between 9:00am and 1 pm. Cllr Sandra Squire said “The market at Docking selling fresh local produce fits perfectly the national theme of choose what you’ll use.  Local markets across the borough are the ideal place for fresh fruit and vegetables and the food caddy is the perfect place for the vegetable peelings.” The Waste and Recycling Team will be offering all Councillors the opportunity to lead by example and collecting a free caddy and liner before full council on 21 March.

Barry went on to say: “It’s not too late to start your food waste journey and we want to encourage young and old to take part, which is why our walking, talking, food waste caddy will be visiting Nelson Academy in Downham Market and South Wootton Primary School in King’s Lynn this week. As well as talking to students about how food waste can be turned into green electricity and biofertilizer, we will give their parents the chance to pick up a free caddy if they’ve misplaced theirs.”

The borough council will share food waste advice across its social media channels across the week for example…

Any bag will do - Residents can line their kitchen food waste caddies with old plastic carrier bags, bread bags, fruit and veg bags and other freezer/sandwich bags, or use these to put food waste in. This will keep their caddy and outside bin clean and hygienic - and also provide an additional use for single-use plastic bags. Alternatively, caddies can be lined with newspaper.

We throw away 6.6 million tonnes of household food waste a year in the UK. This food waste is responsible for nearly 25 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, equivalent to 5.4% of the UK’s territorial emissions. The majority, 4.5 million tonnes is food that could have been eaten and is worth approximately £14 billion (or £60 a month an average family with two children). It requires an area almost the size of Wales to produce all the food and drink currently wasted in the UK.

Working together, we can prevent food being wasted needlessly and protect the planet.