Eric Pickles’ £250 million Weekly Collection Support Scheme will now accept organic and food waste. The announcement was made last Friday (February 3) by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

Back in September 2010, Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar, Eric Pickles, unveiled the plans of a scheme to support councils who wish to introduce, retain or reinstate weekly collections of residual household waste. At that time organic and food waste were not qualified for collections. Which meant householders would still have to hold on to their food waste for up to two weeks.

Last Friday as Mr Pickles announced that the scheme is now open for application he also stated that weekly food or organic waste collections will qualify for support.

The Conservative MP said: “This scheme will literally help stop the rot. Over the last decade, we have witnessed a massive decline in the number of households getting weekly collections and an increase in people having to store food waste and nappies for up to two weeks.

“It signals that a shift in the approach and attitude towards rubbish and recycling collections can happen. This new approach puts the householders, the environment and value for money at the forefront of how councils should think about a weekly waste collection”.

The £250 million fund will be made available to local authorities over three years; £50 million in 2012/13, £100 million in 2013/14 and £100 million in 2014/15. Any local authority can lead a bid and there are no limits to how much funding an authority can bid for.

The scheme will also accept bids from consortiums constituted of businesses and third parties. Bids from groups of local authorities will be accepted too.

Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “We want to help people to go green by making it easier for them to do the right thing. This scheme will encourage councils to provide the services we believe residents really want, without sacrificing the environment.”

Detailed information on the scheme can be found at: Supporting Weekly Collections Prospectus.

The initiative behind this scheme should help councils increase the frequency of waste collections and residents will see that their tax money is being well spent.

But after the food waste is collected it’s when another problem emerges. What to do with it?

With landfill tax, set to reach £64 per tonne in April, reaching sky high levels and costing councils millions of pounds each year. Local authorities must also have food waste management and recycling plans in place. Hence Wrap’s £10m fund for food waste processing.