Hounslow Council has been shortlisted in the National Recycling Awards' category for best Food Waste Initiative, with its Flats Communal Waste Service.

Hounslow is in contention to win another impressive accolade, this time for the ingenuity within its waste and recycling service.

The Council has been shortlisted in the National Recycling Awards' category for best Food Waste Initiative, with its Flats Communal Waste Service catching the eye of the judges.

Hounslow is one of only six organisations to be shortlisted for this award across the United Kingdom, and one of only two London boroughs to be recognised, alongside Hillingdon.

The commitment to providing all households with a weekly food waste collection service—no matter the property type—started back in early 2020. Hounslow Council set a target of providing a food waste collection service to 24,000 flats by the end of 2022.

To date, 20,450 households across 186 sites benefit from the service. The Council is well on track to achieve its ambitious milestone, and even exceed it.

The scheme has already generated savings of almost £57,000 in disposal costs and has sent more than 612 tonnes of food waste for recycling.

Working in partnership with West London Waste Authority and Lampton Recycle 360, the Council identified a higher level of food waste in flats residual waste when compared to homes with kerbside collections.

So, the objective became clear: to provide residents with the clean, manageable, and accessible tools to recycle food waste and stop leftovers falling into rubbish bins.

Hounslow became the first London borough to introduce the innovative fully operational state-of-the-art bin wash (similar to a large-scale dishwasher). A full bin is collected from each site weekly and replaced with a clean bin, solving the main issue of dirty and/or smelly bins reported in residents' feedback.

The £500k investment provides Hounslow residents with more opportunities to recycle their food waste, and provides the infrastructure and resources to collect this type of waste from flats.

Hounslow Council's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Transport Strategy, Councillor Katherine Dunne, said: "We are of course delighted to be recognised for our service's innovation, and for the dedication displayed to tackle the problem of food waste. Around 32% of properties in our borough are flats, so the roll out of the Flats Communal Food Waste service is really making a meaningful difference to Hounslow. The project has cut more than 5,000 kgs of carbon dioxide emissions, so we're doing our bit to support the Council's green ambitions, too.

"The Council can't afford to see food waste quite literally wasted, and residents increasingly do not want to contribute to this either.

"People are becoming more aware of the amount of food wasted and its negative impacts on the environment, and this is leading to positive behaviour changes in terms of the reduction of food waste.

"There's a clear desire from our residents across all property types to recycle more, and it's our duty to provide ongoing accessible and innovative solutions to tackle the issues of waste."

The winners will be revealed at the National Recycling Awards on Tuesday, 6 December 2022 at the Westminster Park Plaza, London.

• Residents living in flats who would like food waste recycling can contact [email protected] 
• Please provide your full address and the name and contact details of your managing agent.