Council celebrates Sink Your Waste milestone

Herefordshire Council is this week marking a special milestone in its successful “Sink Your Waste” scheme, which encourages residents to invest in a food waste disposer.

The county, together with Worcestershire County Council, has now given out more than 1,000 cashbacks to residents in both of the counties.

Both councils are leading the way in helping residents deal with the enormous amount of food waste that ends up in Worcestershire’s landfill sites by offering them up to £80 towards the cost of buying and installing a food waste disposer.

Jeremy Howell-Thomas, project development officer for Worcestershire County Council, said: “I’m delighted so many people have already chosen to take up this great offer. Food waste disposers are such a convenient way of dealing with messy food waste in the kitchen.

“1,000 cashbacks means 1,000 food waste disposers out there chomping away, diverting tonnes of food waste away from landfill,” he added.

Herefordshire Council is keen for residents to get into the habit of composting as much of their food waste as possible. However, for things that can’t be easily composted like cooked food, residents are encouraged to invest in a food waste disposer.

Food waste equivalent to the weight of more than 150 fully-loaded jumbo jet aeroplanes is collected from homes in Herefordshire and Worcestershire each year. If this waste, which includes used teabags and stale sandwiches, gets sent to landfill, it rots and gives off methane – a potent greenhouse gas.

To find out about the Sink Your Waste cashback scheme, call 01905 766883 or download a claim form from http://www.sinkyourwaste.com/