FOOD waste collection bins are coming to Wokingham next year as the council plans to recycle more household waste.

Residents in Wokingham borough will be given a new food waste container next year, April 2019. The new waste bins are part of the council's plans to recycle at least 50% of household waste by 2020.

The lockable 23-litre food waste containers will be delivered to each household, as well as a small kitchen bin and bin liners.

The food bins will be sent to an anaerobic digestion plant, which captures the methane created by waste to produce energy and fertiliser. This means the new bins will not be sent to landfill sites, where they are left to decompose and produce a harmful greenhouse gas.

Currently around only 30% of all blue bag waste could be recycled in regular food waste collections.

Norman Jorgensen, councillor and executive member for environment, sports, environmental health, leisure and libraries, said: “We’re all becoming aware of the impact we are having on the environment and so it’s important we do our bit. When food waste is sent to landfill, it produces methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.

“Introducing food waste collections will allow us to reduce the amount of methane in the atmosphere and reduce how much waste we send to landfill.”

The food waste bins will be collected on a weekly basis at the sane time as the blue bag and black box collections.

All households will still receive the normal allocation of 80 blue bags or more for bigger families and all weekly collections will remain the same.