Potato peelings, turkey carcasses, orange peel and overcooked Brussels sprouts from 50,000 Conwy homes are helping to light up the UK.
Instead of letting it rot in landfill, Conwy residents recycled 100 tonnes of food waste last week [the equivalent of two million mince pies] through Conwy County Borough Council’s weekly recycling service.
Two thirds of Conwy’s food waste is composted in Anglesey, with the rest now being used to produce green electricity through anaerobic digestion, a process which turns food waste into energy and fertiliser.
Cllr Mike Priestley, Conwy County Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “While it’s great to use your leftovers, it’s impossible not to have some food waste at Christmas and I’d like to thank residents for not putting it in the rubbish bin. The days of piles of black bin bags in the streets are thankfully long gone and I’m delighted that we are now able to power up the national grid with our food waste.”
“In the week after Christmas, Conwy residents recycled 314 tonnes of waste – meaning our recycling crews had to work flat out to collect it all. I would like to thank our staff for working incredibly hard and say to residents, thank you and keep it coming.”
Cllr Priestley added: “We’re not just recycling more in Conwy; we also sent 25% less to landfill this Christmas than we did in 2010, which has saved £13,000 in one week on landfill charges alone – money that can now be spent on further improvements to our recycling service.”
Andrew Wilkinson, Waste Manager for Conwy County Borough Council said: “Garden waste collections will resume on Monday 9th January. If you have a real Christmas tree, we’ll collect it, shred it and turn it into compost, ready to be used again in Conwy’s parks and gardens. You don’t even need to chop it up, just leave it out on your garden waste collection day.”
“If you live outside the kerbside collection area, you can take your old tree to our recycling centres in Mochdre or Abergele. We recycle all kinds of household waste at our centres, so if you got a new TV for Christmas or plan to splurge on a sofa in the sales, don’t forget to drop off your unwanted goods or call to book a bulky waste collection.”
