Horsham District food waste collection trial is ready to launch

Selected households in the Horsham District are due to begin a recycling and waste collection trial to include separate collections of food waste and Absorbent Hygiene Products.

From 29 September Horsham District Council will launch its new trial collection service that includes weekly food waste and Absorbent Hygiene Product (AHP) collections, such as nappies and incontinence waste.

The trial will form part of an enhanced recycling and waste collection service. It will include some 100 different households from across the Horsham District. These households will include both family households, single occupancy homes and flats.

The trial service will use a ‘1-2-3’ collection system, as follows:

1. Weekly food waste collections and an optional, free subscription service of Absorbent Hygiene Product collections, if required e.g. nappies and incontinence waste
2. Existing fortnightly recycling (blue-top bin) collections and garden waste (charged, subscription service)
3. Three weekly general waste (green-top bin) collections, based on trial participants having substantially less waste to dispose of as a result of their food waste being collected separately and other collection services recently introduced by the Council such as textiles, small electricals and household batteries.

All residents who have been selected to participate in the trial and receive kerbside collections, will be given free bins, including a lockable food waste recycling bin and a handy kitchen caddy.

Residents who live in flats will be supplied with a free kitchen caddy and their bin stores will be upgraded to collect food waste and AHPs.

The food waste ‘1-2-3’ trial has been developed as a result of resident feedback telling us that they would like separate food waste collections amidst concerns about the impact of food waste on the climate.

This trial will be crucial in helping us to fully understand how we can improve the way we deliver future recycling and waste collections and establish the most appropriate frequency of collections and size of bins to effectively meet residents’ needs.

You can learn more about the trial, find out useful tips on reducing your food waste and sign up to our Waste and Recycling email newsletter by visiting our Food Waste page

Horsham District Council Cabinet Member for Environment, Waste, Recycling and Cleansing Cllr Philip Circus:

We are really excited to see the introduction of this food waste trial. We have looked at the results of our waste composition analysis and it has  shown us that food waste makes up on average, 42% of thewaste currently put out for collection in green-top bins.  So the trial results should provide us with an accurate picture of just how much food waste and AHP’s we can divert away from the normal residual waste stream.

This 1-2-3 trial is one of the first of its type to take place in West Sussex. Our aim is to gain valuable feedback from residents throughout the trial period, enabling a full review to assist in re-shaping and enhancing waste and recycling collections for the District in the future.

No decision has been made on the future pattern of waste collections but this trial should pave the way to building upon our current great recycling record.

Collected food waste will be taken to an Anaerobic Digester which will break it down into biofertiliser for use on land, and a biogas, which ban be used for generating energy.

The trial is set to start on 29 September and will continue for 12 weeks.