Bin lorry fleet to collect food waste in district

New government rules will require councils nationwide to stop sending food waste to landfill.

Seven new green bin lorries and thousands of new bins and caddies will be bought to introduce food waste collections in part of Leicestershire.

Weekly collections will start for residents across Blaby district from April 2026, the council has said.

The food that is collected will be taken to biogas plants to generate green energy, said Blaby District Council, rather than heading to landfill via black bins.

The fleet of £105,000 vehicles powered by vegetable oil will be ordered to collect waste from residents across the area.

Each household in Blaby will receive a small bin for waste including tea bags, vegetable peelings and left-overs and a larger bin for outside to store the food waste bags.

The authority said the scheme is being introduced to meet government food waste rules.

The government said more than 10 million tonnes of food is wasted every year in the UK.

It said rolling out collections nationwide could help cut more than 18 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions nationally connected with food waste.

Councils will be legally required to introduce schemes from 31 March 2026.

Blaby councillors agreed to provide funding towards the scheme on Tuesday

Nigel Grundy, the district council's neighbourhood services and assets portfolio holder, said the collections will be “a challenge” but the council “applauds the reasoning behind it”.

He added: “I think once people realise how much food they are throwing away – thanks to it being collected in one place – they will want to act.

"If you are throwing away food you are throwing away money.”

The council agreed on Tuesday to contribute £50,000 to the rollout, alongside £920,000 of government grants.