A FEW months ago, Mid Devon District Council announced their plans to expand the already extensive household waste collection service by removing the brown bin (previously for cardboard, food and garden waste.)

This was to be replaced with a cardboard bin, a food caddy and a chargeable garden waste collection service. The cardboard bin, whilst not without its own bafflement (no lid? Really?) has come in with relative ease, however after just three weeks, I’m ready to abandon the food caddy altogether.

First I must clarify, I’m all up for recycling as much as possible, and I think sending the food waste to compost is, for those of us without our own composting facilities, a great plan.

The problem that I have with this new service, however, is that the collection agents aren’t properly emptying the food caddy.

Now, when we were in the brown bin system, this wasn’t a problem. Food waste went into the brown bin, along with garden waste.

If some of it was left behind when it was emptied, it wasn’t a big deal, as it just continued to compost in the bottom of the bin, which lived outside.

The food caddy, however, lives in my kitchen, so I have much more of a problem with it not being properly emptied.

With each collection, there is a good amount of moulding food left in the bottom of the caddy.

Of course I understand the need to clean the caddy for hygiene purposes, but when there is food waste left, what am I supposed to do with it?

Take it out and put it back in the food caddy once it’s clean? Or put it in for landfill, in which case, what is the point of having the food caddy in the first place?

I’m really unhappy with the having to bring the food caddy back into my kitchen with so much food waste left in it, it’s just unhygienic.

Of course the argument exists for buying compostable bags, but why should we have to incur a new expense because MDDC wants to change their collections?

Perhaps they should decide to either provide bags to residents, or instead invest the money on a new training programme for the agents.

Until one of these comes to pass, I’m giving up on the food caddy. It was a nice idea, but the execution isn’t up to par.

Chris Ford

Barn Park

Crediton