Waste Reduction & Food
how Lancaster City Council is tackling climate change
Waste Reduction
What is the Council doing to reduce single use plastic in its buildings and events?
Not only are plastics made with petroleum products, they are responsible for a wide range of pollutants and emissions during reduction. Hardly any of this plastic is recycled and over the last 60 years over 8.3 billion metric tonnes has ended up as plastic pollution. A tragic fact is 91% of all plastic is single-use. Plastic is set to double over the next 20 years, despite the growing awareness of its impact on the environment. The Council is working to refuse, reduce and recycle single use plastic.
As a general rule at our meetings and events we do not provide or use single use plastic. When single use plastic is required we only supply biodegradable products, or products that are recyclable.
At Williamson Park we encourage you to enjoy your drink in house, but if you need to take it away all of our products are vegware and biodegradable.
Whenever we have events on LCC land, we provide additional recycling provision to help encourage as much recycling as possible.
The Council has produced a guidance note . for events on land owned by Lancaster City Council, which state single-use plastics cups must not be used at the event, to use paper drinking vessels instead.
What is the Council doing to support a circular economy locally?
In support of the Circular Economy, the Council works in partnership with Furniture Matters a charity which collects bulk furniture items and reuses via a shop. If items are not suitable for sale they are stripped back to components and recycled. Do you want to learn more? Check out Furniture Matters .
Does the Council have a garden waste collection service?
Did you know you can get your garden waste collected? You can find out more about our garden waste collection and to subscribe online to next year’s service, quickly and conveniently.
What about food waste? Watch this space. We are not taking food waste yet. The Council is waiting for DEFRA to confirm kerbside waste recycling requirements before rolling it out but that hasn't stopped us from undertaking a trial run of collecting food waste for 1,000 homes in Heysham to help us to plan how we will roll it out on a larger scale when the time comes.
In the mean time, have you considered composting in your back yard? Check out Get Composting .
Read all about the trail run in Heysham.
If you would prefer community composting, get in touch with Food Futures who have community composting coming up as part of their Closing Loops programme .
How high is the Councils' area wide annual recycling rate?
Across the UK recycling rates are down. Here in Lancaster District the current recycling rate is 38%, this is 6% lower than the average for England (44%).
We have a focus on increasing this percentage. Would you like to know more about how you can help and a guide to what you can and cannot recycle? Check out our how to guide .
Do you want to learn more about waste and recycling in the UK?
How much household waste does an average household in Lancaster district produce?
Have you ever wondered how much annual waste is made on average for a household in Lancaster? The annual residual waste in kg per household is 480kgs* or about the weight of a male Polar Bear!
Do you want to see how this stacks up against other regions in England or other Countries in the UK?
*This is the number of kilograms of residual household waste collected per household. Residual waste is any collected household waste that is not sent for reuse, recycling or composting.
Food
What is the Council doing to support initiatives to redistribute surplus food waste?
The Council supports the redistribution of surplus food. During the pandemic the Council allocated significant financial support to a local food redistribution initiative (Egg Cup) and continues to support them wherever possible, for example by facilitating the siting of large refrigeration containers on council property. Find out more about EggCup .
Does the Council have a sustainable food strategy?
Addressing the Climate Emergency also includes understanding our food system and having a food strategy. The Council is a key partner in the local food partnership (Food Futures) who worked on delivering the community food strategy , which is aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The Council also worked with Food Futures and Partners on delivering a Food Poverty Strategy .
North Lancashire (which the City Council is part of), was one of seven places across the UK that received a prestigious Sustainable Food Places (SFP) Silver award ; recognising the outstanding efforts of individuals, organisations, businesses and community groups from across our region in promoting healthy, sustainable and local food to tackle some of today’s greatest social challenges; from food poverty and diet-related ill-health to the disappearance of family farms and the loss of independent food retailers.
Is the Council part of a sustainable food partnership?
In November, 2021 we signed the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration which is a global commitment by local and regional governments to tackle the climate emergency through integrated food policies and a call on national governments to act.
We can only meet the challenge of a sustainable food future by working together. The Council is a key partner in the local food partnership and supports in in many ways that it can, including an annual financial contribution.
How is the Council supporting local food growing?
The Council supports local groups in any ways that it can to grow food. For example the Good Things Collective have taken over a plot of unused council land in the West End for growing.
We also are supported the Food Futures Allotment Review , supply allotments and make our land available to Friends Groups many of them who have food growing initiatives such as Scotch Quarry or Fairfield.