Littlehampton food waste trial will end in September as funding is withdrawn

The 1-2-3 trial gives 1,400 Littlehampton households access to food waste collections, absorbent hygiene product disposal, fortnightly recycling, and three-weekly refuse collections.

Since it began in May 2021, the trial has seen participation rates of over 85 per cent; a 50 per cent reduction in residual waste; and increased recycling.

The trial was intended to be a model for roll-out across the whole district and was initially extended until February 2023.

But it will now be cut short after Arun District Council’s Environment Committee decided not to roll out food waste collections from February 2023 – for fear it could exclude it from future government funding.

West Sussex County Council then decided to withdraw project funding.

On Thursday (14 July), the Environment Committee agreed to close the trial at the end of September – something that will cost ADC £11,000.

Environmental services & strategy manager Oliver Handson, said 1-2-3 had been valuable for gathering information and the data would be used to inform future collections.

But some committee members expressed regret that the trial will end, leaving waste collections the same as they were before it started.

Amanda Worne (LDem, Yapton) said: “This was a really good scheme and it worked really well for residents.

“It certainly did save on the black bag rubbish because a lot more was going into the food and recycling, so we’re sort of stepping backwards and regressing with our recycling and towards maintaining our climate.”

David Huntley (Ind, Pagham) said it would be ‘dangerous’ to adopt less frequent collections without food waste and hygiene product collections but added that the 1-2-3 system ‘should not be abandoned’.

Environment Committee chair David Edwards thanked residents for taking part in the trial.

“Thanks to those residents, sufficient evidence was gathered to support a 1-2-3 collection system where food waste is collected weekly, recycling fortnightly, and residual rubbish every three weeks,” he said.

“This valuable data can be used in the future for the roll-out of separate food waste collections, not only across Arun but for all West Sussex.”