Food waste collection delays announced by councils

Two Lancashire councils have said they will not meet the national 31 March deadline to start collecting food waste.

All local authorities with waste collection responsibilities have been given until this date to introduce separate weekly pick-ups of leftover, unwanted and out-of-date food.

Ribble Valley Borough Council said it would not start this service until October, however, while Fylde Council will begin to collect food waste in the autumn.

Both told the Local Democracy Reporting Service they had experienced delays in obtaining the new vehicles needed to deliver the service.

A Ribble Valley Council spokesperson said: "Many councils have experienced difficulty in procuring the specific vehicles necessary in time for the start date.

"The delay to our delivery of the service is due to circumstances out of our control, following a robust procurement process."

The LDRS asked all 14 Lancashire authorities when their food waste service would begin.

Lancaster City Council will be the first of the county's local authorities to introduce the service, with collections due to begin next month.

Blackburn with Darwen Council was granted an extended deadline due to its current waste disposal contract and said it would start the service on 1 June.

However, the authority has already been making food waste collections from more than 9,200 households in the borough since April 2025 as part of a pilot scheme – and almost 1,500 more will be added next month.

Three Lancashire councils have been granted significantly more time to start dedicated household food waste collections, while two others have been unable to confirm whether they will meet the deadline.

Householders will be asked to put their food waste in a small caddy that they will be supplied with to store in the kitchen, before emptying it into a larger outdoor bin to be collected by refuse workers.

The government announced the major change two years ago, requiring councils to make the necessary preparations in time for the 31 March 2026 deadline, unless their existing waste disposal contracts prevented them from doing so.

However, some have since been allowed to enter into "transitional arrangements", because they were not going to be able to start on time.

Chorley and South Ribble councils have not confirmed if they will meet the deadline – although neither has previously indicated there would be a problem in doing so.

Most authorities have indicated that they would begin to collect food waste separately from 1 April.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "While local authorities will have the flexibility to deliver these reforms in the best way for their council areas and residents, we still expect them to take all reasonable steps to meet their statutory obligations."

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