Food waste equivalent to weight of 92 elephants collected in one month

The impressive haul came from around 70,000 homes and totalled 554.2 tonnes – the same average weight as 92 elephants!

Each household contributed 2.35 kilograms of food waste on average, the weight equivalent of around five footballs.

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The scheme is meeting its target of helping Reading Borough Council (RBC) to reach a recycling rate of 45 per cent.

Councillor Adele Barnett-Ward, lead member for Neigbourhoods and Communities, said she is “delighted” that the scheme has successfully achieved a 45.8 per cent recycling rate.

She added: “This is a truly impressive improvement in the recycling rate, and I would like to thank Reading’s residents, as well as our hard-working council officers in waste management, for embracing the new service and making it a success.”

PICTURED: The food waste scheme is helping RBC towards reaching its target of a 55 per cent recycling rate by 2025

RBC is aiming to recycle 55 per cent of waste by 2025.

The collections, which started on February 1 as a new council service following a trial last year, enables food waste to be diverted away from landfill and used to generate electricity and fertilise crops.

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The service was introduced alongside changes to the borough’s black bin sizes, with the general waste bins reduced from 240l to 140l.

Another 14,000 households, in high and low rise flats, will get the food waste bins between July 2021 and March 2022.