Rugby Council not involved in successful Warwickshire food waste recycling project
Rugby Liberal Democrats have expressed their disappointment at the lack of involvement from Rugby Council as a Warwickshire project which encourages residents to recycle their food waste has scooped a third top title and is in line for three more national awards.
Warwickshire County Council's 'Grey to Green' campaign took Bronze at last week's iESE Awards 2017 in the Transformation in Waste & Environment category. The 'Grey to Green' campaign encourages Warwickshire residents in participating Warwickshire Waste Collection Authorities to recycle food waste in their green wheeled bin instead of putting it in their grey or black dustbin.
The new award comes hot on the heels of Warwickshire being named joint first in the Public Sector Sustainability Awards 2016 (Best Waste / Recycling Project) plus picking up Gold in the International Green Apple Awards for Environmental Best Practice.
The 'feed your green bin' initiative is now nominated in the MJ Local Government Achievement Awards 2017 in the 'Behaviour Change' category and is a double finalist in the National Recycling Awards 2017.
As a result of these projects there has been a 71% upsurge in the Warwickshire's food waste capture rates. Food waste recycling has also helped Warwickshire achieve a trend-bucking 54.1% recycling rate in 2015-16.
The Warwickshire waste collection authority areas who have chosen to take advantage of the recycling project are Nuneaton and Bedworth; North Warwickshire; Stratford-on-Avon District; Warwick District.
Commenting, Councillor Jerry Roodhouse, said:
"Whilst the rest of Warwickshire is recycling more and looking at ways to help residents, Rugby Council under the Conservatives decided to charge residents extra for the green bin service, increase council tax and not to take advantage of projects on offer that can improve how much we recycle. Rugby Liberal Democrats think there is a better way and we ask why Rugby residents can't get involved in these innovative campaigns and more importantly who took the decision that Rugby Council should not take part?"