![Organiser Ingrid Pope [pictured] launched Tunbridge Wells Yard Sale last year after seeing a similar event in the US.](https://www.timeslocalnews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/food.jpg)
A contract for a new food waste delivery service in Tunbridge Wells is to be decided this month.
Tenders have until Tuesday [May 8] to submit a bid to provide the service, which will see householders given a new free bin for discarded food waste.
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council is to make a decision on the tender before June.
The service would begin in March next year.
This is part of the authority’s new waste scheme, which was revealed by the Times in November to include an opt-in payment for garden waste collection.
Town Hall stands to save £3million a year by entering the West Kent Joint Waste Project with neighbouring authorities.
It is estimated the opt-in fortnightly collection of garden waste would cost £30 a year from March next year. This service is currently free.
There would also be doorstep glass recycling added.
When the announcement was made in November, council leaders hailed the move as an opportunity to ‘reduce the cost of food and garden waste disposal’.
A spokesman from the borough council said: ‘Putting the right waste in the right place will help improve recycling performance in Tunbridge Wells and reduce costs for the council.’
Critics said the change could leave residents with rubbish ‘piling up’.
Details of the contract are likely to be finalised next month, at which point details of any charges are likely to be known.
Tunbridge Wells would join borough councils from Tonbridge & Malling and Dartford by entering the West Kent Joint Waste Project.
Kent County Council is backing the proposals as part of their ambitions to put in place separate collections of discarded food on a weekly basis in all districts by 2020 to reduce the cost of food and garden waste disposal.
