Bin crews are expecting an increase in food waste over the coming weeks - due to thousands of pumpkins.

With Halloween next week Stafford Borough Council has said residents can put chopped up pumpkins into their food waste caddies which are emptied weekly.

But the local authority is also asking residents to make sure they remove candles, lights or other non-edible decorations from the fruit before it is put out.

The food waste service in Stafford Borough got underway in April this year and has seen an average of more than 80 tonnes of food collected each week from local homes. But it will be the first Halloween since the new service was introduced and the council are encouraging residents to use the food caddies if they are throwing out what’s left of the pumpkin.

It is estimated around 18,000 tonnes of pumpkins are thrown away uneaten in the UK after Halloween - although some households will turn theirs into soup or pie. The Love Food Hate Waste has more uses for the leftover pumpkin at Leftover Halloween Pumpkin Recipes | Love Food Hate Waste

All food waste is taken to an ‘anaerobic digestion’ plant to be converted into energy and the digestate produced used in agriculture to improve soil.

Cabinet Member for the Environment, Councillor Ian Fordham, said: “Our residents have been fantastic in supporting the new food waste service which was the biggest change to household recycling across the whole borough for more than a decade.

“And we expect to see that waste increase in the days following Halloween when people have finished with their pumpkins - although I hope residents will take the time to look at the ideas on the ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ website.”

The food caddy is collected alongside the green, blue and brown bins - but at a different time of the day, and in a different vehicle.

As well as pumpkins, the items that can go in the new caddies are:

• Fruit and vegetables - including peelings.
• Fish, meat and bones.
• Tea bags and coffee grounds.
• Eggs and dairy products.

The caddies cannot be used for liquids, oils or fats, garden waste or food packaging.

See more information on the new service at www.staffordbc.gov.uk/food-waste

Press Release No: 6338