Bexley residents are being encouraged to recycle more of their food waste with the help of a new bin sticker.
Over the next couple of months Council bin crews will make sure your home gets the message – ‘food’s not rubbish so let’s recycle it!’ by putting a sticker with this on all the Borough’s general rubbish bins.
The bin stickers are a gentle reminder that food waste doesn’t belong in your general rubbish bin. Instead, put it in your free food box —it’s collected every week and turned into green power for local homes. If you recycle just six teabags that creates enough energy to boil water for another cup of tea!
The rollout of the stickers follows the introduction of other initiatives to increase food recycling including the extension of the free weekly service to flats above commercial premises.
Recent annual recycling figures from DEFRA show that Bexley is doing well on overall recycling. But 30% of the waste that is currently going in general rubbish bins is food waste that could have been recycled in the Councils free weekly food recycling service instead.
Cllr Rags Sandhu, London Borough of Bexley’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Culture and Leisure said:
We would like to thank everyone for the work they have done over the past year to help us increase recycling in the Borough. The annual figures show that Bexley’s recycling rates have improved at a faster pace than many of our London neighbours. This is a fantastic achievement and is good for the environment.”
You can order a free kitchen food waste recycling caddy and food waste box and check what food can be recycled online.
You can recycle all cooked and uncooked foods – including bones, fish skins, tea bags and coffee grindings.
You can also hear from a local student, Bella, why recycling food is so important and how easy it is at how to recycle food waste like a pro.
The food waste sticker also aims to help reduce recycling costs as processing food waste is cheaper than processing general rubbish and is more energy efficient to dispose of.