Councils to miss food waste collection deadline

Households are throwing away up to £1,000 of food a year – but food waste collections for Worcestershire residents won’t start for at least six months.

Worcestershire County Council says a third of residents throw away edible food once or twice a week, while another third end up throwing away food that has gone past its use-by date.

All councils in England should offer a separate weekly food waste collection from April 1 as part of national efforts to drive up recycling rates.

But all six of Worcestershire’s district councils – the authorities in charge of bin collections – are going to miss the government’s deadline.

Malvern Hills District Council (MHDC) has said it will be the first to introduce a domestic food waste collection service.

It plans to roll out its service to homes across the district from October 5. Residents will be provided with a kitchen caddy for inside the house, a roll of liners, a food waste bin for outside the house, and an instruction leaflet.

Jeremy Owenson, deputy leader and portfolio holder for environment at MHDC, said: “The service makes it easy and convenient for residents to recycle their food waste whilst helping to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill.”

Worcester City Council expects to launch domestic food collections in the spring of 2027.

The city council needs new specialist bin lorries in order to run the service and says there is a 12-month waiting list for the vehicles because demand is so high.

The council is also procuring waste caddies and wheelie bins for Worcester’s 48,000 households.

Bromsgrove and Redditch councils both say they plan to implement food waste collections “during the 2026/27 financial year” but haven’t committed to a firm date.

Wyre Forest District Council says it will not make any arrangements for weekly collections of food waste from domestic properties until the government provides additional funding to cover the cost of the service.

Wychavon District Council is delaying the introduction of its food waste collection service by two years.

It is blaming a combination of existing contractual constraints and uncertainty over government funding to run the service for missing the deadline.

Wychavon also points out that with local government reorganisation taking place, the district councils will be replaced by either one or two unitary authorities in April 2028.