Food Waste Action Week & Labour's Rubbish Recycling Rates

This week was food waste action week 🧅🍌🍍🥚

Apps like Too Good To Go, food waste action charities and initiatives are great. Of course, don’t buy what you are likely to waste, maximise use, and compost if you can. As effective as reducing waste can be, some food waste is inevitable – peelings, egg shells, tea leaves.

Anaerobic digesters generate sustainable fertiliser and energy – moving us closer to a regenerative economy by maximising use, making the council money, and reducing pollution. Separate food waste collection is now becoming a statutory responsibility for councils to provide to all households [1]. Though, it’s unclear what kind of punishment can be expected for failing councils.

It’s a shame Exeter City Council lags behind other areas. Despite a centralised population, Exeter has the worst recycling rate in the South West at just 25.5% [2]. Worse than over 95% of all English councils [3]. Neighbouring East Devon, by contrast, boasts a recycling rate of over 60%. When Exeter City Council was Lib Dem-led over 10 years ago, our recycling rate was competitive. Since Labour took control, the rate has declined over 10% to its shocking low today [2].

This failure is primarily caused by lack of household glass and food waste recycling, which makes up as much as half of black bin waste [3]. Food waste collection is a norm in other areas and has existed for decades. 4 of the top 5 councils for recycling are Lib Dem-led [4]. More Liberal Democrat councillors = better recycling.

After consistent pressure from our Progressive Group, we finally welcome the rollout of food waste collection 7 years after Exeter Labour committed to it in their manifesto [5]. Because of warped funding priorities, this sporadic rollout has been repeatedly delayed and is still incredibly slow. So far, despite many public announcements, just 10% of the city gets their food waste collected [6]. There is also no plan mentioned for how collection from city centre flats is going to work.

We demand this scheme goes further faster. We are keeping up the pressure on the Labour-dominated City Council to ensure everyone has access to this vital service.

Sources:
[1] https://www.localgov.co.uk/Changes-to-food-waste-collection-and-recycling-What-actions-do-councils-need-to-take-/54208
[2] https://democracy.devon.gov.uk/documents/s43631/Waste%20Performance%20Statistics%20202122%20-%20Final.pdf
[2] https://www.letsrecycle.com/councils/league-tables/2020-21-overall-performance-2/
[3] https://democracy.devon.gov.uk/documents/s32889/HIW-20-34.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0qw9wfcthRLmQqAm3WP2bBQDo1nRRbW44dbriHeLrmtQsnjtCSyItaeHs
[4] https://m.facebook.com/10159167845893270/
[5] https://exeterobserver.org/2023/02/01/exeter-in-brief/?fbclid=IwAR380ymjygNCar6foYjluGhWk9Tl34vve3v9GOnuY1u2f9pJJb2s1X2HgIU
[6] https://news.exeter.gov.uk/almost-2-100-more-homes-set-to-be-added-to-exeter-food-waste-rollout/#:~:text=More%20than%2013%2C000%20homes%20in,collections%20of%20their%20food%20waste