FLATS will soon start to receive food waste caddies in Reading in the final stage of the new council scheme with deliveries starting from July 26.

Food waste bins and caddies have already been delivered to 62,000 homes in Reading, with an early adopter service for 3,000 households starting in autumn 2020, followed by rollout to 59,000 homes in February 2021.

The scheme also replaced 240-litre grey waste bins with 140-litre ones to encourage people to use the food waste caddies.

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The final phase of the scheme will start on July 26, with 14,000 flats to receive food waste caddies over an extended period from that date onwards.

Of the remaining 14,000 homes, some will receive food waste bins between July and December 2021 (Phase 2A), with others receiving the caddies from June 2022 (Phase 2B).

Collections will begin in August for those who receive them first. No date has yet been set for all flats to receive food waste bins.

Individual internal caddies and caddy liners will be provided to each household, but they will not have individual external caddies and instead will share 240-litre communal food waste bins.

A spokesman for RBC said: “The specifics of the Phase 2A roll-out are currently being finalised, but it is likely to be a combination of an area and ownership/management based approach, working with managing agents to introduce food waste collections in individual blocks.

“The project completion date has yet to be set and will depend on the progress of Phase 2A and 2B.”

The introduction of the food waste scheme has helped Reading’s recycling rate to rocket to above 50 per cent.

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In April 2021, the town’s recylcing rate was 52 per cent compared to 32 per cent in April 2020.

The scheme’s progress will be discussed at next week’s Housing, Neighbourhoods and Leisure meeting on July 6.