Council credits food waste collections for notable recycling improvement
Winchester City Council says the introduction of household food waste collections has driven a significant increase in the city’s recycling performance, with councillors reporting a rise in the recycling rate and lower levels of residual waste sent for incineration.
At Full Council on 20 August, Cllr Steve Cramoysan, Liberal Democrat cabinet member for Recycling and Public Protection, told colleagues that Winchester’s recycling rate is now 47.3%, up from 40.4% in the 2024/25 reporting period — a gain of around seven percentage points since food waste collections were fully rolled out.
Cllr Cramoysan framed the change through the council’s residual waste figures, saying the weight of non-recycled waste collected from black bins is now at a rate of 368kg per household per year over the four months since full rollout. He contrasted that with Defra’s published figure for 2024/25 of 439.8kg per household per year, representing a reduction of roughly 16% in residual waste going to incineration.
"In the last four months, or the first four months since food waste collections were fully rolled out, the residual waste tonnage is at a rate of 368 kg per household per year... And that’s a reduction of residual waste weight of about 16 per cent of residual waste which is going into incinerators."
The figures were supplied in response to a question from Cllr Angela Clear (Lib Dem, Southwick & Wickham) and come as the council seeks to show early benefits from changes to kerbside services. Cllr Cramoysan noted that official comparative figures published by Defra lag by nearly a year: the latest national dataset was published in February 2026 and covers the year to April 2025.
At Full Council, Cllr Cramoysan placed Winchester’s updated rate in context, saying the city’s previously reported 40.4% recycling rate compared with other nearby authorities where the best performers had recycling rates in the low 40s — for example, Rushmoor recorded 42.8% in Defra’s most recent published data.
| Measure | Winchester (reported) | Defra 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|
| Recycling rate | 47.3% | 40.4% (Winchester) |
| Residual waste (kg/household/yr) | 368kg (first 4 months since rollout) | 439.8kg (Defra 2024/25) |
Residents across the district will notice the practical changes that accompany the policy: separate containers for food waste and regular collection routines intended to divert organic material from black bins and reduce what is sent to incineration. The council regards the measures as part of wider efforts to reduce waste, lower carbon emissions associated with disposal, and meet statutory recycling targets.
- Immediate impact: Early data points to a drop in residual waste tonnage.
- Comparisons: Official league tables lag; Winchester’s most recent internal figures exceed the previously published Defra baseline.
- What to watch: Whether the improvement is sustained across a full 12-month cycle and how neighbouring authorities respond.
Council officers and the cabinet member have so far presented the numbers as an encouraging start, but the hedging over Defra’s lagged statistics highlights the challenge in making like-for-like comparisons in real time. For Winchester households, the key question will be whether the new collections continue to deliver lower waste volumes to incinerators and higher recycling rates over the coming year.
The council will be expected to publish more complete figures when Defra’s next set of official statistics becomes available, allowing for a fuller assessment of how Winchester’s performance stacks up against other districts in the region.
