\n Breckland, South Norfolk, North Norfolk and Great Yarmouth were all instructed to offer residents a separate food waste collection service by March 31.\n<\/p>\n
\n It comes as new government guidelines require all councils across the country to offer the new measures, in what has been described as one of the biggest shake-up to recycling policy in England in 20 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n The councils received millions in funding to help the transition (Image: BBC)\n<\/p>\n
\n Nationally, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) handed out more than \u00a3340 million in grants to help councils make the switch.\n<\/p>\n
\n Four Norfolk councils alone received more than \u00a36 million of that pot, yet none managed to meet the deadline.\n<\/p>\n
\n Norwich City, Broadland and West Norfolk Council have already been operating the scheme for an extended period, and received a minimal amount of financial support.\n<\/p>\n
\n Breckland, South Norfolk, North Norfolk and Great Yarmouth all point to the same reason as to why they missed the deadline, however.\n<\/p>\n
\n They claim a national “rush to market” for specialist food waste vehicles, with hundreds of authorities placing orders simultaneously, overwhelmed manufacturers.\n<\/p>\n
\n Great Yarmouth – which has held Norfolk’s worst recycling rate for more than a decade – says it won’t have its fleet fully prepared until January 2027.\n<\/p>\n
\n Great Yarmouth Borough Council has struggled with recycling for years (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesman added that delays in government funding also compounded the council’s struggles.\n<\/p>\n
\n Breckland and South Norfolk are targeting to launch food waste recycling by summer and September respectively, while North Norfolk expects to begin by February next year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Norfolk’s councils also argue the county’s rural character makes the new waste collection difficult, and some have questioned the legitimacy of the scheme in less sparsely populated parts of the county.\n<\/p>\n
\n One council spokesman said that in rural areas lorries are having to travel miles between collections, meaning fuel and operational costs may outweigh the environmental benefit.\n<\/p>\n
\n Nationally, 79 English councils – one in four – missed the same deadline.\n<\/p>\n
\n DEFRA told the BBC that non-compliant councils risk judicial review, but acknowledged they are accountable to their electorate, not ministers.\n<\/p>\n
\n WHAT CAN YOU PUT IN BINS AHEAD OF THE COLLECTION CHANGES\n<\/p>\n
\n Recycling bin\n<\/p>\n
Newspapers, magazines and telephone directories<\/p>\n
Paper and clean cardboard<\/p>\n
Plastic bottles (such as drinks, detergent, shampoo and plastic milk bottles – leave the lids on)<\/p>\n
Steel and aluminium food and drinks cans<\/p>\n
Empty aerosols<\/p>\n
Glass bottles and jars (leave the tops on)<\/p>\n
Plastic food pots, tubs and trays (such as yoghurt pots, ice cream containers and margarine tubs)<\/p>\n
Waxed cartons and Tetra Paks (such as those used for juices and soups)<\/p>\n
Foil and foil trays<\/p>\n
Shredded paper<\/p>\n
Envelopes (including window type), greetings cards and junk mail<\/p>\n
Wrapping paper<\/p>\n
\n Leftover food waste caddy\n<\/p>\n
Leftovers<\/p>\n
Fruit and vegetable peelings and cores<\/p>\n
Egg shells and salad<\/p>\n
Coffee grounds and teabags<\/p>\n
Meat and fish (including bones), cooked and uncooked<\/p>\n
Out-of-date or mouldy food<\/p>\n
\n General rubbish bin\n<\/p>\n
\n Use your rubbish bin for anything that doesn\u2019t go in your recycling bins or food waste caddy. For example:\n<\/p>\n
Broken crockery<\/p>\n
Food pouches<\/p>\n
Nappies<\/p>\n
Pet waste<\/p>\n
Vacuum dust and sweepings<\/p>\n
Broken toys<\/p>\n
Polystyrene<\/p>\n
Glassware and Pyrex<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breckland, South Norfolk, North Norfolk and Great Yarmouth were all instructed to offer residents a separate food waste…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-509183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}