• IF we don’t recycle our household food waste it goes to landfill, which not only costs the council (and council taxpayers) more money but then decomposes to add more methane to our greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s also throwing away a valuable (if slightly yucky) resource which could instead be used to produce things like fertiliser, animal feed or usable energy.

Islington Council has brown bin food waste collection systems in place for estates and street properties and for some years has offered free compostable, food waste bags, available at libraries.

These bags, however, are a “well-kept secret”, which the council rarely promotes and many residents don’t even know about, so take-up of the service is low.

The importance of recycling food waste was recognised by a recent council review of household recycling, which, for example, looked at how to improve availability of waste bags on estates.

When I went to pick some up from Central Library the other week I was told they haven’t had any for a while and that other libraries haven’t either.

I then rang Contact Islington, which said it didn’t know when any more would be coming. I’m not sure if this demonstrates a misplaced attempt to save money by the council or just bad management, but neither is impressive.

Persuading people to recycle food waste is a significant challenge. If the council had a better grasp of global warming and financial management it would be making it easy for the public to use their brown food waste bins and actively encouraging them to do so. Not making it more difficult.

ANDREW MYER
Islington Green Party