At its meeting next Monday, January 13, the council’s cabinet is recommended to approve delegated authority for the purchase and delivery of food waste caddies to enable a roll out of food waste collections from April 1, 2026, in order to meet statutory requirements.
The collections will take place weekly.
It will take the number of bins for Warrington residents to three, and four if they subscribe to green bin collections.
The Environment Act 2021 is highlighted in a report to cabinet.
As part of the Act, local authorities are responsible for the introduction of a domestic weekly food collection service to all residents, says the report.
“The Act mandates that each residential property must receive a weekly food waste collection service,” it adds.
“This service will be facilitated by providing residents with use of 5L kitchen caddies and external 23/25L caddies that will be presented once a week by the resident for collection.
“The Act acknowledges the difficulties in offering a food waste collection service to residents within flats and other communal properties and proposes the use of 2140ltr bins or other relevant containers at the applicable challenging sites.
“Warrington Borough Council was successful in receiving a food waste collection grant totalling £1,863,566 from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) in March 2024, to support and deliver the service of collection of food waste.”
The intention is to purchase and deliver food waste caddies in a phased approach to ensure ‘efficient management of resource and services’.
The report states there are 98,000 residential properties across Warrington – this is a mix of detached and semi-detached houses, terrace properties and flats.
It is proposed that an initial order of 60,000 caddies will be placed in order to commence the roll out. A further order of 15,000 caddies will be placed within the ‘proceeding three to six months’ to further expand the roll out to residents, therefore meeting the objectives of the Act.