Cheshire East Council has begun the final phase of delivering new food waste caddies to its residents.

Almost 148,000 new outdoor food waste caddies have now made their way to residents across the borough, with a further 38,000 scheduled for delivery over the next few weeks.

This comes as the council prepares for the introduction of a new weekly food waste recycling service, which is a requirement of Government's Simpler Recycling legislation.

Councillor David Jefferay, cabinet member for environment, sustainability and waste management, said: "We're pleased to have reached the final phase of delivering food waste caddies to residents across Cheshire East.

"A significant amount of work is taking place behind the scenes to get ready for this new service and ensure it's introduced as smoothly as possible, including the expansion of our waste depot, planning and testing new collection rounds, and the arrival of new collection vehicles.

"We're also continuing to recruit for a number of roles to support the rollout of this new service. We know the market is highly competitive, and this is particularly true for HGV drivers, so we've recently enhanced our pay offer to make the salaries for our drivers more competitive and help attract and retain talented people.

"As well as HGV driver vacancies, we have a number of other roles available and so if you, or someone you know, are looking for a new opportunity, we'd encourage you to apply and be part of delivering an important service for local residents. Visit our website and search for 'jobs in waste and recycling' to find out more'."

The council expects to provide a further update on the planned start date for the new weekly food waste collections by mid-October, once all caddies have been delivered and final testing of the new collection rounds has taken place.

At the same time, new bin collection calendars – including details of any changes to residents' bin collection day – are also expected to be available to view and download from the council's website.

Meanwhile, residents living in flats or shared accommodation where there are three or more flats within a property are reminded that they will receive a communal food waste bin, with these to be delivered in October.

Councillor Jefferay added: "We appreciate residents' patience while we make the final arrangements for this new service and look forward to making it easier for more people to recycle their food waste.

"In the meantime, if you've already received your new caddy, please keep it in a safe place and look out for further updates from the council in the coming weeks."

Once weekly food waste collections start, black bin general waste collections will move to three-weekly.

Silver bin recycling collections and garden waste collections, for those who subscribe to the garden waste recycling scheme, will continue as normal.