Eight parish councils are currently on track for a cash bonus after increasing the amount of food waste collected in their areas.
16 local parish, community and town councils signed up for the Recycle & Reward scheme last year which runs from December 2016 – February 2017.
The scheme works by giving parishes a cash incentive to improve the tonnage of green bin waste (food and garden) collected in their area. This is measured by comparing it to previous years’ collections.
The three parishes who have the biggest increase after the test period is up will win an extra cash bonus with the top parish getting a ‘Gold’ award of £5k. The Silver award is £2k and the Bronze award is £1k.
The money can be spent on anything they like so long as it benefits the local community e.g. benches, sports equipment or a community event.
This scheme is being funded by a grant from the Department for Communities & Local Government.
Local residents are being encouraged to reduce the amount of black sack waste they produce by using their food caddy and green wheelie bin to recycle more food and garden waste more. As part of the Green Bin campaign the Council also:
- Commissioned video clips showing how leftover food can be made into delicious recipes
- Wrapped a bin lorry with a ‘bin monster’ image
- Sent postcards to all MK households to encourage more food waste recycling called ’don’t feed the animals’
- Commissioned a video called ‘Binwatch’ filmed in Wolverton
- Produced a recipe book featuring 10 recipes from local chefs and restaurants.
All the recipe videos and Binwatch are available to view on the Council’s YouTube Channel
It costs the Council £46 per tonne to dispose of food and garden waste in the green bins compared to £102 per tonne of black sack waste.
