A spooky recycling opportunity for East Cambridgeshire

Residents in East Cambridgeshire no longer have to worry about leftover Halloween pumpkins creating a recycling horror story thanks to the District Council teaming up Ellgia Recycling.

Normally the authority encourages people to put food waste in their green wheelie bins, however for this Halloween special pumpkin recycling bins will be located at the Council offices on Nutholt Lane in Ely.

These bins will be in place from Monday 2 November to Friday 13 November and will be emptied by locally based Ellgia Recycling. They will use the vegetables to help create electricity by a process known as anaerobic digestion with any material left at the end of the process used to make fertiliser for use on nearby farms.

Cllr Julia Huffer, Waste and Recycling Champion of East Cambridgeshire District Council said “In East Cambridgeshire, we are developing an excellent record for recycling thanks to the efforts of our residents putting their waste out to recycle. By teaming up with Ely based Ellgia Recycling this Halloween, we are doing something a little different to help with the disposal of what I’m sure will quite a lot of pumpkins. Their idea to collect what once were scary and often very artistic pumpkins is a great initiative and I hope we can create a lot of electricity through this process.

Joe Rudd of Ellgia Recycling said “We’re pleased to be joining forces with East Cambridgeshire District Council for our latest food recycling campaign for Halloween. Each year tonnes of pumpkins are thrown away and we’re pledging to ensure that some of this food is recycled and made into green energy.”

Information about anaerobic digestion can be found at www.ellgiarecycling.co.uk/news/blog/item/ellgia-food-week

Information about what happens to material collected in green & blue recycling bins in East Cambridgeshire, including videos can be found at http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/recap/recycling

For more information on the waste and recycling service in East Cambridgeshire please visit www.eastcambs.gov.uk/waste/ or call 01353 665555.