THE success of Wokingham Borough Council’s (WBC) food waste collection scheme could lead to food waste bins popping up in Reading and Bracknell too.

WBC’s initiative launched in April and the authority collected nearly 400 tonnes of leftover food waste in its first month in operation.

According to the council, this first-month collection was the equivalent weight of 54 African elephants.

READ MORE: Council celebrates success of new food waste operation

Recycling bosses from Bracknell Forest Council, Reading Borough Council and WBC met to discuss the public’s feedback to the scheme, where one officer from the latter authority said the response had been “very good”.

Clare Lawrence, assistant director place-based services at WBC, said: “We took the decision to not send out the bins too early (before the scheme was launched) so they would not be tucked away in people’s cupboards.

“I think that backfired a little bit. People were asking where their bins were!”

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A full report on the scheme is set to be presented to councillors from Bracknell, Reading and Wokingham in the coming months but environmental bosses suggested the success of the scheme could lead to food waste bins coming to boroughs west and east of Wokingham.

Tony Page, lead councillor for strategic environment, planning and transport at Reading Borough Council (RBC), said his authority is “looking at detailed reports and recommendations” about food waste collection in Reading and claimed RBC would factor in WBC’s report into their research.

Cllr Dorothy Hayes MBE, executive member for environment at Bracknell Forest Council(BFC), said she hoped both RBC and BFC would be “coming this way” in the future.

Bracknell’s environmental guru was asked by Cllr Mary Temperton in January whether the authority had any plans to roll out food waste collection in the borough, to which Cllr Hayes replied: “Wokingham have presented how they are dealing with food waste, so watch this space.”

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Councillors met at Smallmead Recycling Centre in Reading on Thursday, July 4 to discuss Wokingham’s food waste collection scheme, how their shared ‘re3’ recycling initiative was having an impact on climate change, and the progress re3 is making.