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Food for Thought…. A portion of food a day gets thrown away |
Residents of North Herts are now able to add food waste into their brown bin with their cardboard and garden waste.
We need to divert as much bio-degradable material from landfill as possible. Around 25% of the waste in the average household waste bin is food waste. Amazingly, this means for every three bags of food we bring home we are effectively putting one straight in the bin. Food waste is one of the major contributors to climate change as it emits large amounts of methane. This new addition to the brown bin service will help North Herts to meet our local and national recycling and landfill diversion targets as well as helping to control the rising cost of putting waste into landfill therefore controlling future council tax burden.
So the first thing many of us could do would be to stop wasting food, which is costing the average household between £420 and £610 each year. The Waste Resource Action Programme (WRAP) estimates that if we cut down this waste, it would equate to removing 1 in 5 cars from the road, saving 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. For more information see the WRAP 's report The food we waste
Then, before you put any leftovers in your brown bin first consider if you could re-use them to make anything else. There are some great recipe ideas for leftovers on Love Food Hate Waste. Some food items will always need throwing away e.g. fruit cores, peelings and meat / fish bones but at least now you are able to recycle them. By placing your food waste in the brown bin instead of the grey bin, you will be diverting 50kg per household from landfill which equates to nearly 3,000 tonnes for the whole district each.
For tips on how to reduce your food waste visit Love Food Hate Waste.
How in vessel composting works
Once your food, cardboard and garden waste have been collected it is sent to our In Vessel Composting facility (IVC) centre outside Baldock (above) where it will be treated in a fully enclosed vessel. As the waste breaks down, the temperature is carefully controlled to ensure the waste reaches a high enough temperature for specified times to kill off any bacteria. The finished product is a sterile soil conditioner, Ace of Herts which can be purchased for use in the garden. For more information visit Cumberlow's website or see our Focus on Food Waste article.
What you can put in your brown bin
For detailed information on what your brown bin will now to able to accept see our 
Leaflet or Sticker.
Contamination in brown bins
If the collection crews find your bin contains something it should not, the bin will not be collected and a sticker will be placed on the lid detailing the nature of the contaminating item(s). Please remove any items which are not in the yes list and present your bin for collection on your next scheduled collection day. It is not possible to return to collect your bin before this scheduled day so please be careful to ensure that you follow the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ guidelines very carefully. To maximise the use of the new IVC facility, please think about prioritising the contents of your brown bin; food first, cardboard second and garden waste last of all. If you have any extra garden waste that will not fit into the brown bin, either save it for the next collection or consider composting at home. The carbon footprint significantly reduces if you compost as much of your waste at home as you can.
Please remember if you are already composting at home, keep composting your garden waste, uncooked vegetable and fruit peelings in your compost bin or heap and just place your meat, fish, bones and cooked food in the brown bin. Better still, try to reduce the amount of food you buy and then throw away! For further information on how to compost at home or to buy a subsidised home composter please visit Recycle Now.
Collection arrangements
Please ensure your bin is presented with the lid closed at the boundary of your property by 7.30 am on the day of collection and remember to take your bin and boxes in as soon as possible after your collection. If you can, number your bins and boxes so you can easily see which ones are yours. Missed collections must be reported within 48 hours by calling 0800 3286023.
All residents should have received a leaflet and a sticker during the Summer of 2008. If you have not received them, please see our Leaflet and Sticker or contact our Customer Service Centre on 01462 474000 to request they are sent out to you. The sticker and leaflet should only have been sent to low level properties with a brown bin for garden waste and cardboard (not flats), if you have received these in error and you don’t have a brown bin please ignore it.
