Households urged to use their food caddies to help hit recycling targets

Households across Wrexham are being encouraged to recycle their food waste as part of a new drive to help the council meet recycling targets set by Welsh Government.

In February Wrexham.com reported that new stickers asking residents to use the appropriate recycling containers for recycling and food waste have been appearing on people’s black bins.

Locally the black / blue bins are used for household waste, with separate recycling boxes / bins for glass, paper, plastic, food and garden waste.

However as part of the council’s next step in its drive to recycle more, residents are being asked to recycle more food waste.

Since the council started rolling out the free caddy liners in autumn, food waste recycling increased from 170.68 tonnes in January 2018 to 189.44 tonnes in January 2018.

Between October 2017-January 2018 a total recycled 610.15 tonnes were recycled – compared to an increase of seven per cent 653.72 tonnes between October 2018-January 2019.

Reaching the targets means Wrexham Council avoid financial penalties, with Welsh Government previously threatening (but not actually fining) penalties of £200 per tonne that the target was missed by after they brought in the first statutory recycling targets in the UK back in 2010.

Cllr David A. Bithell, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, says: “It’s great news to hear the latest food recycling figures, which shows that the people of Wrexham are making use of the free caddy liners.

“More and more people are starting to recycle their food waste, but we know that we can do even better. There are a number of benefits to recycling your food waste and we want to encourage people to take advantage of these.”

Food waste is collected on a weekly basis and households are asked to use their food caddy to dispose of food waste and out of date food that has been removed from its packaging.

One recurring theme / question since the new stickers have been stuck on black bins, is where can people get a food caddy from – with a number of residents in touch to say they have never been given one.

Food caddies can be ordered for free here on the Wrexham Council website.

If you’re running low on caddy liners, you can just tie an empty one to your caddy handle on your collection day a new roll will be left for you. Alternatively you can collect them from one of the council’s recycling centres.

Cllr Bithell adds: “A big thanks to the people of Wrexham to help us reach these figures. And here’s to even better results in the coming months.”