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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support his Department is providing to local authorities to implement food waste collections.

The Environment Bill will require all local authorities in England to arrange for the collection of food waste for recycling. This must always be collected separately from residual waste and dry recyclable materials so that it can be recycled.

On 7 May 2021 we published a second consultation on recycling consistency. This consultation closed on 4 July 2021 and sought views on the implementation of separate food waste collections, among other policies. The consultation included questions on the materials in scope of collection and delivery dates. We are currently analysing responses to the consultation and intend to publish our Government response in due course.

Given the additional costs involved in separate food waste collection, the Government will ensure that local authorities are resourced to meet any net new burdens costs arising from this policy. We will continue to engage with local authorities on the cost estimates that we provided in the impact assessment accompanying the second consultation, as well as the appropriate timing for funding to be provided to authorities, to enable sufficient lead-in time ahead of implementation.