From April 2026, local authorities in England will be required to collect food waste weekly.

The Government had provided Blaby £920,000 in grant funding to prepare for the change, and the Leicestershire council will contribute an extra £50,000.

It will be spent on seven new vehicles, which will cost £105,000 each and run on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), and thousands of food waste bins and caddies.

Blaby’s portfolio holder for neighbourhood services and assets, Nigel Grundy, said: ‘We are at an early stage with our food waste collection plans, with it launching in April 2026.

‘It will be a new challenge for us but we applaud the reasoning behind it.

‘Food waste often contaminates items which could be usefully recycled so we hope our recycling levels improve.’

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