Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of requiring local authorities to provide bins for food waste disposal for residents.

New section 45 of the Environmental Protection Act (as amended by the Environment Act 2021) will require all local authorities in England to arrange for the collection of food waste for recycling. This must always be collected separately from residual waste and dry recyclable materials so that it can be recycled.

This policy will make recycling food waste easier and ensure there is a comprehensive, consistent service across England. This change, alongside the wider impact of the government’s Simpler Recycling reforms, will reduce confusion with recycling to improve recycling rates, ensuring there is more recycled material in the products we buy, and the UK recycling industry grows.

Our second consultation on Simpler Recycling In 2021 sought views on the materials in scope of collection, exemptions and statutory guidance.

We are working to assess net additional costs of food waste collections to local authorities. Any new financial burdens introduced through new statutory duties on local authorities will be assessed in accordance with the New Burdens Doctrine and the net reasonable cost covered by the government.

As announced in our Net Zero Strategy 2021, we are disbursing funding which will allow local authorities in England to deliver free weekly separate food waste collections from all households.

Further details will be provided in the response to our second consultation, which we aim to publish shortly.