Are you involved in setting up or running a council food waste scheme? Or perhaps you live in an area where your council is planning to set one up. At Gardening Delights we have six years experience, and supply caddies and liners for over 70 council food waste schemes nationwide. We’re really pleased by the number of councils which are running Food Waste Schemes and we’re happy to see people using compostable liners, however we’re frustrated by the way some schemes are run. We have found that few councils run the same scheme, however a common blue print is beginning to emerge; a 7 litre kitchen caddy for use indoors and a 20-25 litre bin for collection by the refuse crews.   The question is, whether to include compostable liners or not? Evidence from WRAP suggests that where liners are allowed to be used in food waste scheme, up to 25% more food waste is collected, so encouraging their use is sensible. The problem then arises that liners are a consumable product and commitment to provide them for free is impossible for councils, we can all appreciate that there budgets are finite.   Food Waste Scheme Best Practice. We feel that good practice would be to include a small sample roll of liners along with information as to where additional liners can be purchased, however in most cases this does not happen, which means people are unaware of where they can purchase additional liners and subsequently stop taking part in the scheme. It seems that councils are still reluctant to sell and market their food waste collection scheme, preferring to inform rather than sell.   Where to buy more liners? Many councils seem happy to promote the availability of compostable liners at supermarkets but are reluctant to promote the independent retailers and their regional local shops. We have taken the decision to only supply independent shops since we find they are able to stock liners and caddies specific to individual schemes. We also find the level of service  for customers in smaller shops is much better, with the information we provide they quickly become ambassadors for the scheme and encourage constituents to take part. There is also a pre-occupation by some councils that these liners should be made available at council offices. We could understand them being available in council offices if they were provided for free, however people do not go shopping at council offices. Recently we have come across a council selling liners at their own offices and at the same time through local shops. However, they are insisting the shops make no margin and must sell at the cost price. We believe this to be illegal and fall foul of Competition Law in a number of respects. It can be regarded as price fixing, loss leading and restrictive practice to name a few. Here at Gardening Delights we have set up networks of independent retailers selling compostable liners prior to scheme launches in many parts of the country and we work without any contracts with the council. This is simply a free market. We are confident our liners are of the highest quality and offer best value for money ensuring you the customer are able to purchase our liners from local retailers cheaper than you would in the supermarkets. Please take a look at the feedback on our website or Amazon.   We can help! If you live in an area where the council are running a food waste scheme and you require liners or caddies (our 7 litre caddies and 7 litre liners are being used in over 70 national council schemes) you can buy them direct from our website or from local retailers but remember to ask for Gardening Delights caddies and liners to ensure you get better value. If you know someone who is implementing a food waste scheme, ask them to get in touch and we’ll do our best to help and advise them.