The green light has been given for the introduction of household food waste collections, which would see waste processed at two specialist facilities.

Hampshire County Council has approved proposals to introduce household food waste collections across the county, estimating that between 30,000 and 50,000 tonnes of food waste will be collected annually from households.

The initiative is in line with the government’s simpler recycling guidance, which requires all waste collection authorities to implement kerbside food waste collections by April 2026.

In Hampshire, these authorities include district and borough councils as well as the unitary authorities of Portsmouth and Southampton.

Currently, only Eastleigh Borough Council, Rushmoor Borough Council, and Portsmouth City Council operate food waste collection – though other borough councils have plans to introduce these collections when the waste can be processed.

Under the proposals, food waste will be processed using anaerobic digestion, a process that breaks down organic material to produce renewable gas and organic fertiliser, which the government recommends as the preferred treatment method.

Veolia has made agreements with two anaerobic digestion facilities located in or near Hampshire.

These agreements aim to reduce the travel distance for the collected materials. Some of the materials will be sent directly to the processing facilities, while the rest will be dropped off at waste transfer stations. From there, they will be collected and taken to the processing facilities.

To facilitate the delivery and ‘bulking’ of food waste into transfer stations, approximately 20 lidded containers, each with a capacity of 22 cubic metres, will be required across the county to manage the expected volume of food waste produced.

The county council will cover the cost of the containers, estimated at around £300,000, plus annual treatment and processing fees.

The total cost of bulking, transferring, and processing food waste in Hampshire is projected to be about £2,000,000 in the first year.

At the decision day (June 23), the executive lead member for universal services, Cllr Kristy North, said: “It’s really important we do whatever we can to support the rollout of food waste collection to those areas which have not already started it.

“It’s a clear aim of the government’s simpler recycling policy and the county council securing that disposal capacity and arranging the logistical challenges of bulking, transferring and capacity is really important and forms part of the wider changes to waste recycling.”