We're supporting national Food Waste Action Week which is running from 9-15 March.
It aims to inspire simple, practical action that helps food go further - saving you money, time and stress, whilst also protecting the planet.
It comes at a time as we continue to roll-out weekly household food waste collections in line with the Government's instruction that local authorities must collect food waste from all homes in their area on a weekly basis.
Our roll-out began last November and over 20,000 Hartlepool homes have since received recycling caddies - a small one for inside use and a larger one for outside into which the contents of the smaller caddy should be emptied. Since November, we have collected more than 125 tonnes of food waste. Funding for the caddies and specialist vehicles required for the collection of food waste has been provided by the Government, so this initiative comes at no cost to Hartlepool residents.
As part of Food Waste Action Week, we would ask you to first of all consider how you can make your food go further to reduce waste, and then to commit to recycling in your caddies what is ultimately left over.
Statistic shown that 60% of food waste in the UK occurs in homes. Every year households throw away 4.4 million tonnes of edible food worth £17.5 billion. For a family of four, that's around £1,000 wasted every year.
For more information on how to make your food go further go to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
For more information about food waste collections in Hartlepool visit www.hartlepool.gov.uk/waste-recycling/food-waste-collections