Our Food Waste Survey launched towards the end of last year, and we’re pleased to say there was a brilliant response with many residents taking part to help us learn about people’s food waste habits in Wrexham.
Over 1,850 responses in total????
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Cllr David A Bithell, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “We’re delighted and thankful that so many residents took part in the Food Waste Survey. There were over 1,700 responses to the full survey, plus a further 150 of the shorter surveys were completed at the recycling centres, which is fantastic.
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“We’ve now collated all the information and read through your comments – from which there are some really promising ideas. We really appreciate having such an overwhelming response which will help us to further develop and improve the food waste service we provide in Wrexham.”
What you told us
Here are some of the things you told us in the Food Waste Survey…
Why we recycle food and how it gets wasted
The primary motivation for recycling food waste in Wrexham (with over 70% of responders listing this as a reason) is to save money. A number of these people also went on to tell us how their life experiences had led them to try and not be wasteful.
The main reason why food gets wasted in the household was food going off before the use by dates or best before dates (47%), followed by not everyone eating all of their meals (just under 35%).
It was also interesting to note that just under 85% respondents indicated that they only throw away ‘a bit’ or ‘a little food’ each week from their household.
Our food waste collection service
This area of the questionnaire gave us an insight into our residents ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ about the food waste collection service in Wrexham.
Some interesting things to note were:
- Over 80% of respondents already use the food waste collection service. The largest motivator being that ‘it’s a service provided by the Council that’s there to be utilised’ (80%), followed closely by how ‘it’s the right thing to do’ (78%), and then ‘to do my bit for the environment’ (75%).
- Over 80% of the respondents asked to rate the food waste service thought it was either ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.
- Suggestions for improvements included working with some collection crews to take more care on collection day, and looking at providing better quality caddy liners.
- Around 15% of respondents indicated that they don’t use the food waste service, with the top reason for this being issues with unwanted pests (43%), followed by householders not wanting a food caddy in the kitchen (39%). Similarly, 51% of those who used the service at some point, but then stopped cited unwanted smells/odours/pests as the reason.
- There were positive comments about the service, but also areas that need some attention. For instance, some people felt greater promotion was needed around how the crews will leave a roll of liners if you tie a caddy liner around the handle of the kerbside caddy on your collection day, as they were unaware of this.
- Residents emphasised how they like the system of tying a liner to the handle of their caddy to indicate they need more liners, but also that collecting the liners from pick-up points in Wrexham has a place too. It was pointed out on several occasions that some individuals would not be able to access a pick-up point due to working hours or mobility issues.
Pick up caddy liners and blue sacks from these locations in Wrexham!
- Many of you have suggested new potential pick-up points that you would like to see in Wrexham, and we can now start approaching these locations to see if they will distribute the free caddy liners and blue sacks for us.
- Some respondents (44%) would like to know more about what happens to the food waste once it is collected and for this information to be promoted more through educational settings.
Thanks again to everyone who took part in the Food Waste Survey, it’s really appreciated.
Keep an eye out for our food waste tips over the coming days too!
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