The new food waste collection in Crowborough has had a few teething problems but waste bosses are confident it will “improve dramatically”.
The food waste collection service was introduced at the end of March across the whole of the area covered by the East Sussex Joint Waste Partnership – a partnership of councils including our own Wealden District Council.
Councillors were told at a meeting of the Waste Partnership that in the first week that the whole scheme operated more than 162 tonnes of food waste had been collected.
Shaun Barnes, the council officer responsible for managing the contract, told the meeting: “Collections commenced over a phased process; eight rounds started on the 30th March, the other remaining nine rounds started on the 13th of April. Data at the moment is fairly new.
“In the week commencing the 13th of April, when all 17 rounds were collected, we collected 162.8 tonnes of food waste, which works out at about one kilogramme per household.”
And it was estimated that between 50 to 60 per cent of households across the area had participated. The councils contractor, Biffa, has bought 20 new food waste vehicles and taken on new staff to service the routes.
All councils were required to have a food waste scheme in place by the end of March, and funding has come from the Government.
Councillors said they had received complaints from residents about missed food waste collections and missing containers.
Biffa representative Trevor Elliott said the focus had been the new staff learning the routes; getting used to the methodology of the collections; and how to operate the vehicles.
“We have had some teething problems with the vehicles, which has not helped us and caused delays in certain areas. But the troops are working tirelessly to ensure where we are.”
He added: “Next week is more about getting into the details. The supervisory team and management team are not focused so much on the completion, it is more about finessing the service. So I am expecting it to improve dramatically beyond next week.”