Kitchen waste caddies and compostable bags have been distributed to 55,000 homes and since January recycling officers have been visiting households to explain how the new system will work.
The food waste collection service is an extension to the organic waste collection services that the council already provides. Green waste has been collected in a number of years and now food waste can be collected commingled with green waste in the brown bins the council provides. 
The collections are expected to divert around 4,000 tonnes-a-year of food waste from landfill.
Councillor Pat McCarthy, chairman of the council`s Health and Environmental Services Committee, said: “Until now, residents with a brown bin have only been able to recycle their garden waste – grass cuttings, hedge trimmings, leaves etc – but thanks to new arrangements on how the council can manage its waste, people can now also put their food waste into their brown bins.”
The council has set up a helpline and a website page to help residents get to grips with the new collection system and ensure the scheme is a success.
Council minutes have revealed that the new caddies and bags have cost the council £64,000.
The new scheme comes in the wake of successful food waste collection trials which were tested across 7,000 homes during 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story). In total the council will now collect from 63,000 homes.
The trials revealed that Belfast householders throw away, on average, 4kg of food each a week and helped the city to raise its recycling rate to 27%.
Mr McCarthy added: “Our recycling rates have steadily risen to around 27 per cent but as a city we must do more to help reduce the amount of waste we are sending to landfill. We are constantly reviewing our collections to maximise our recycling potential, however we must also start to think of ways of reducing the amount of waste we produce in the first place.”
The food waste is being collected as part of the Arc21 partnership between 11 local authorities in Northern Ireland (see letsrecycle.com story) and is set to be recycled at the newly opened £6 million in-vessel composting facility at west Belfast
which is owned and operated by composting company, Natural World Products.
The facility takes 60,000 tonnes-a-year of green and food waste and is believed to be Northern Ireland's largest IVC (see letsrecycle.com story).
Subscribe for free