**NEW RELEASE Council plans for food waste collections

NEW RELEASE

Council plans for food waste collections

Blaby District Council is set to introduce food waste collections as part of a national initiative aimed at stopping food waste heading to landfill and tackling waste and climate change.

The scheme is scheduled to start by 1 April 2026, in line with Government legislation requiring separate weekly collections of household food waste.

The food waste will be sent to a biogas plants to generate sustainable energy rather than being lost to landfill.

The Government suggests this could all help to cut the 18 million plus tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions associated nationally with this waste.

Grant funding of £920,000 has been provided to the authority by the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Blaby District Councillors agreed at a Full Council Meeting on 19 November to contribute a further £50,000 to the project.

The grant and extra funding will see the Council buy seven new vehicles and thousands of food waste bins and caddies needed to run the service.

The vehicles, which cost around £105,000 each, will run on HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) as with the bulk of existing bin collection fleet.

With many other authorities also preparing for the new collections, Councillors were told that orders for the vehicles and bins would be placed before the end of this year to make sure they arrive in time.

Councillor Nigel Grundy, Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhood Services and Assets, said: "We are at an early stage with our food waste collection plans, with it launching in April 2026. It will be a new challenge for us but we applaud the reasoning behind it. Food waste often contaminates items which could be usefully recycled so we hope our recycling levels improve.

"I think once people realise how much food they are throwing away – thanks to it being collected in one place – they will want to act. After all if you are throwing away food you are throwing away money. This can only be a good thing for our residents."