Food waste bin collections set for Rushmoor
The council's cabinet will be asked to approve proposals next week.
As part of moves to tackle climate change, Rushmoor Borough Council is set to introduce food waste collections from the Autumn.
In the first major change to recycling services in more than a decade, households in Aldershot and Farnborough will be able to separate food waste into caddies which will be collected weekly.
The council says as food waste currently makes up nearly 40% of rubbish in green bins - once the caddies are introduced, non-recyclable waste will then only to be collected once a fortnight.
The council says this is is now the norm elsewhere, with 85% of councils collecting non-recyclable rubbish less than weekly.
The borough council's Cabinet will be asked to approve the proposals next Tuesday (8 June).
The Cabinet will also be told that household recycling rates in Rushmoor are lower than many other council areas, at 29%.
It has only increased by about 5% in the last five years and is well short of the forthcoming national target of 65% by 2035.
The council says introducing a new weekly household food waste recycling service, together with other changes, would boost recycling to around 45%, as well as reducing waste and carbon emissions.
Over the coming years, the council is also planning to extend the amount and type of items it can collect for recycling.
If approved, the new service would be introduced to most homes in the Autumn and for households with shared bins next spring, ahead of the government's 2023 target for all councils to offer food waste recycling.
The council would provide households with a kitchen food caddy, an initial roll of liners, and a larger, lockable outdoor caddy to store the food waste in securely.
Residents would also receive information on how to make the most of the new service and details of their collections.
The food waste would be collected weekly for recycling to create renewable energy and soil fertiliser.
Councillor Maurice Sheehan, Rushmoor Borough Council's Cabinet member for Operational Services, said: "The council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and that means taking serious action to address climate change now. One of the best ways we can do this is to increase recycling and reduce waste and carbon emissions.
"Introducing food waste collections is something that most residents have told us they would support, and we are really pleased to be able to bring it forward now.
"This would be our first major new recycling service for more than a decade and would require substantial investment, but it does mean residents would still get a weekly collection from the council - of food waste for recycling, rather than of non-recyclable rubbish, which is much better for the environment.
"Overall, the new service, with a much greater focus on recycling, would be the most significant change to our household bin collections for nearly 20 years, bringing us into line with 85% of other councils in the UK, but we strongly believe it is the right thing to do to address climate change."