Most English local councils have hit a deadline – mandated by the previous Conservative government – to roll out food waste recycling, while others have admitted they are not ready to do so.

But Wiltshire is in an unusual position. Because a range of long-term waste collection contracts were due to expire in 2027, the council negotiated an extension with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs until August 2027.

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Next year, Wiltshire residents can expect to be provided with new receptacles for food waste recycling – possibly including a small kitchen caddy with a larger outdoor collection bin – along with plastic sacks in which they can recycle soft plastics like bread bags.

What households won’t be getting, following the results of a trial, is another new bin for paper and card.

Instead, recyclables, including paper and card, glass, plastic, and tins – the materials residents are already used to recycling – will be sorted at the kerbside by refuse collectors.

The trial of nearly 600 homes in Chippenham last autumn found that just over half of the waste in people’s ‘residual’ waste bins – that is, everything not in the recycling bin – was made up of “putrescibles” – the technical term for material that is likely to rot.

With smelly food waste and soft plastics going to recycling, with food waste being collected on a weekly basis – Wiltshire Council says it can collect what is left once every three weeks.

The council is currently running a feedback exercise to help inform and guide future changes to waste and recycling services in Wiltshire.

Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for environment, climate and waste, Paul Sample, said: “We know that changes to waste and recycling services will raise concerns. This survey is an important opportunity for residents to tell us what works for them and what doesn’t.

“We are aiming to increase recycling rates in Wiltshire from 40 per cent to well over 60 per cent,” Cllr Sample said.

The survey is asking residents’ views on:

Weekly food waste collections and fortnightly plastic bag and wrapping collections.

Moving residual waste collection from fortnightly to three-weekly.

Proposed changes to household recycling centres, including the introduction of an online booking system.

The survey can be accessed at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/futurewaste