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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the cost to the public purse of the introduction of separate food waste collections throughout England.

In the supporting impact assessment to our consultation on consistency in recycling, we modelled three scenarios on how that policy could be delivered, all including separate food waste collection. In the preferred option of that impact assessment (option 3, which for local authorities includes weekly separate food waste, free garden waste, weekly dry multi-stream recycling and fortnightly residual waste collections) the overall cost to the public purse is estimated to be just under £260 million a year between 2023-2035.

This comprises: local authority initial costs and subsequent savings; lost revenue to the Exchequer from local authority and business waste diverted away from landfill; lost garden waste income to local authorities; and policy costs to Government in supporting waste collection changes to municipal business.

The full impact assessment is available from the following link: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/consultation-on-consistency-in-household-and-busin/supporting_documents/recycleconsistencyconsultia.pdf

We will refine our analysis based on consultation feedback and engagement with the sector.