New rules on food waste collection could cost Wakefield taxpayers millions

The Environmental Bill, which was passed into law at the end of last year, will soon demand that councils collect food waste separately from other household rubbish.

The move will ensure more food is recycled and converted into fertilisers and other forms of natural energy.

In Wakefield, food waste is already recycled - but it is separated from landfill after household bins are collected, rather than beforehand.

Council bosses say the current system works well and are now asking for dispensation from the Government to continue as they are.

If they do not get it, money will have to be spent on buying an extra bin for each of the district’s 160,000 households.

More refuse collectors may also have to be recruited before the rules come into force next year.

The council’s deputy leader, Coun Jack Hemingway, told councillors that officers were in talks with the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) about the situation.

Speaking at a scrutiny meeting, he said: “We essentially already do what the Government is wanting us to achieve with this legislation, but they’re being quite prescriptive about how it’s applied.

“It would cost taxpayers more, as we’d have to create those extra bin rounds and buy residents an extra bin as well.

“We’re hopefully working with Defra on a solution because we’d like to continue to work along our current lines, but we can’t confirm any agreement with them on that yet.”

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The same meeting was later told that the cost of hiring one new bin crew, complete with two refuse collectors and a driver, is around £80,000 a year.

The going rate for a new bin lorry, meanwhile, is around £175,000.

Julie Greenwood, the council’s strategic waste manager, said last summer that an extra 20 vehicles could be needed to meet the new requirements, if the authority is forced to adopt them.

She also said that it would be “challenging” and a “burden” to implement the necessary changes before 2023.

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