Names revealed for Reading's six food waste trucks following Ricky Gervais tweet

Reading food waste truck named after Ricky Gervais Credit: Reading Borough Council

Two weeks after Ricky Gervais broke the news on social media that a food waste truck had been named after him in his hometown of Reading, the names of the five other vehicles have been revealed.

Gervais tweeted “Is there any greater honour than your hometown naming a garbage truck after you?” alongside a picture of the truck.

The name of the lorry was selected following a competition held by Reading Borough Council.

Adrian Jack from Caversham, who submitted the entry "Ricky Gerwaste", said: “I was looking for a pun on Ricky’s name because he is local.

"I saw the post tweeted before I’d been told I’d won, and it was really cool to see other celebrities liking the post. We recycle all our food waste so it was exciting to win”.

Reading’s schoolchildren were given the honour of naming the other five food waste trucks, which have now had the names printed on them.

They are:

  • Waster Taster (suggested by Beau from Churchend Primary School)

  • Hungry Hippo (suggested by Lily Cozens from Thameside Primary School)

  • Trashosaurus (suggested by Brock Briese from Alfred Sutton Primary School)

  • The Bindalorian (suggested by Harriet Mallett-Plummer from St Joseph’s College)

  • Bin Truck McBinFace (suggested by Holly Curtayne from Highdown Secondary School)

  • And of course Ricky Gerwaste

Reception student Beau receives a certificate for winning entry Waster Taster Credit: Reading Borough Council

Reading Borough Council’s Recycling & Enforcement Team visited Churchend Primary School this week to give Beau from the Reception class a certificate for his winning entry.

The team hopes to visit all the winners at their schools in September to show them the personalised trucks.

Cllr Karen Rowland, Lead Member for Environmental Services and Community Safety, said:

“We’re delighted that our trucks, which do such a sterling job each week of saving residents’ food waste from going to landfill, have now got names to give them some personality. I’m pleased Ricky Gervais is excited by the honour of having a truck named after him – we’ll happily show him his truck in person if he’d like to come home for a visit.

“It was great to meet Adrian Jack and his family who invented the catchy name. Ricky’s tweet certainly helped give our valuable food waste recycling programme the spike of attention that it deserves, as our residents are doing a sterling job in getting on board with the programme, but maybe he’s garnered a few more converts to our efforts with food recycling.  Thanks for the attention, Ricky!

“Importantly, the naming competition has helped raise awareness about the importance of food waste recycling amongst younger people who will hopefully get more involved with the scheme going forward.

“Keep an eye out for the trucks and see how long it takes to spot all six – never mind Pokemon Go, try Reading Food Waste Truck Bingo!”