Wokingham Borough Council’s first month of food waste recycling has been a huge success, with residents collecting a staggering 383 tonnes of leftover food. That’s the equivalent weight of more than 54 of the biggest African elephants. In the first four weeks, each household that received a set of caddies recycled an average of six kilos.

The public have played a significant role in reducing Wokingham Borough’s carbon footprint. As a result of local people’s efforts and enthusiasm for the new food waste recycling scheme, more than 640 tonnes of polluting greenhouse gases have been prevented from entering the atmosphere through landfill. To put that into perspective, you’d have to run the average UK household for 157 years to produce 640 tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions.

Cllr Parry Batth, executive member for environment and leisure, said: “We’ve been blown away by local residents’ enthusiasm for our new food waste recycling scheme. In just over a month people have diverted 383 tonnes of leftover food away from landfill. If you’ve not yet used your caddy, I urge you to do so and join us in our fight against food waste.”

Wokingham Borough Council’s new food waste recycling scheme also means that by mid-June the food waste collected in April will become more than 100 tonnes of compost, hundreds of litres of a productive natural fertiliser for agricultural use, as well as tonnes of harvested biogas, used as a source of renewable energy for homes and businesses.

Additional food waste bags and caddies are available at Woodley Town Council’s offices at the Oakwood Centre.