A NEW weekly food waste collection service is coming to the Braintree district an effort to stop over 5,000 tonnes of food spilling into landfills.

Over 40,000 households in the district will benefit from the service, which comes into effect in September and is being fully funded by Essex County Council and delivered by Braintree District Council.

Residents will receive an information letter from the district council this June before, in August, they will get a new, small and easy to carry food waste bin together with instruction pack.

The county council’s cabinet member for the environment Wendy Schmitt said: “This is great news for the majority of our residents who will now have their food waste collected every week.

“With everyone’s participation this service will ensure a drastic reduction in how much we send to landfill - helping to keep our environment clean and green.”

One of the benefits of the new service is that the majority of garden waste collected in the district will now be ‘food waste free’ and so can more easily be turned into compost.

“This means that anyone on the new weekly food collections should no longer put food waste directly into their green wheeled bins.

People wishing to know if they will benefit from the service can visit the council’s website braintree.gov.uk or e-mail: csc@braintree.gov.uk or telephone 01376 552525.

• The recycling team will also be out and about to answer any questions at the following food waste roadshows:

Friday July 15, The Grove Shopping Centre, Witham: 9:30am-3pm

Wednesday July 20, George Yard, Braintree: 9am-4pm

Friday July 22, Weavers Court, Halstead: 9am-2pm