You might be familiar with the environmental benefits of recycling food waste, but did you know that putting uneaten food into a food waste caddy, instead of the rubbish bin, has another advantage too? It costs far less to dispose of!
That’s right, around £6 million per year could be saved in Surrey if the food that residents currently throw into rubbish bins was recycled instead.
Chair of Surrey Environment Partnership Cllr Marisa Heath explains: “In an ideal world no food would need to be recycled and it would all be eaten. When food waste goes into rubbish bins it is four times more expensive to dispose of than when it is recycled. If residents recycle food instead of binning it, they are saving money that could be used to fund other essential local services and also doing something which is good for the planet.
“Added to that, the Government has announced that soon every council will, by law, have to provide a food waste recycling service to its residents. Surrey’s councils are ahead of the game already providing this service so we have a great opportunity for residents to go further in utilising food waste and becoming a leading county showing other areas how it is done and using the money saved towards other initiatives such as tree planting, community services and decarbonisation.”
Getting started is simple, just pop a caddy liner or plastic bag (not a black bin liner) into the caddy and you’re on your way to rescuing food from expensive disposal costs.
Find out more about food waste recycling as well as tips and recipes to help you reduce your food waste, visit surreyep.org.uk