Cheshire East Council has decided against applying for grant to help fund a weekly food waste collection service.
Cllr Rod Menlove, Cabinet member in charge of environmental services, and colleagues met last week to consider applying to the Central Government's Weekly Collection Support Scheme for £3.8million funding.
Cllr Menlove said: "Cheshire East Council has considered the merits of introducing a weekly food collection, but we believe that it is not in the best interest of council tax payers.
"My colleagues and I looked at all the options concerning this bid and we agreed that this particular scheme does not present best value for taxpayers in the current economic climate.
"The conditions around this grant would require an additional collection to our current three bin system.
"A bid for £3.8 million government funding would only part-pay for this scheme and it would require a great deal more investment from the Council, which would place an increased burden on the taxpayer, which we don't think is prudent at this current time.
"Out of the 400 collection authorities only 92 collect food separately and they tend to be city authorities with a geographic concentration that makes it easier and cheaper to collect than it would be in highly rural areas.
"We are indeed committed to recycling as much waste as we possibly can, the current rate being an impressive 53 per cent, and we will, in the future, look at further innovative and cost-effective ways to increase this figure.
"We will of course not rule out submitting further bids in the future."
The Council is currently exploring options for outsourcing the whole recycling and waste service from March 2014. It is expected that there could be savings in the order of 10% of the current waste and recycling budget, approximately £21.4m net, covering waste collection, treatment and disposal should the services be outsourced.
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