The Northern Agenda: A new home for your leftovers
03.08.2022 - 14:49
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Keep up to date with all the big politics stories in the North with the daily Northern Agenda newsletter.
You can receive the Northern Agenda newsletter direct to your inbox every week day by signing up right here.
Here is today's Northern Agenda:
By ROB PARSONS - August 3 2022
What do you do with your leftover food after dinner? Scrape it straight into the general waste with other domestic rubbish or into a separate bin so it can be recycled?
Apologies for the slightly personal question to start today's email but it's relevant as it looks like from as early as next year, local councils will be legally required to collect food waste separately and recycle all the waste that cannot be redistributed.
After the Environment Act was passed in 2021, local leaders across the North are now wrestling with having to change their practices and the extra cost that comes with that. In Sheffield, for example, it was announced this week that around 8,200 households will pilot a scheme where food waste is collected separately, starting on August 29.
Participating households will receive an outdoor food waste bin half the size of a blue bin plus an indoor five-litre kitchen caddy and a roll of 52 biodegradable liner bags, writes Local Democracy Reporter Molly Williams.
Plate scrapings, meat, fish, dairy products, rice, pasta and more can go into the caddy before transferring it to the outside bin for collection. It then gets collected and taken to anaerobic digestion facilities in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire to be recycled into bio-fuel and nutrient-rich fertiliser and soil enhancer for farming.
A similar scheme is being tried in Northumberland. Under the trial, 4,800 homes in Bedlington Central, Morpeth Stobhill, Morpeth North and