Food waste collections to begin

A third of all collected rubbish is made up of food waste

A Scottish council is to begin food waste collections in a bid to reduce the amount of methane gases created at landfill.

Residents in Stirling will be given a food waste collection kit, including a "kitchen caddy", compostable bags and advice on how to increase recycling.

The scheme follows a pilot in the city's Riverside area over the winter.

Stirling Council estimates that food accounts for about a third of its total landfill waste.

The authority believes that more than £6.3m, an average of £167 per household, of food waste is generated in the area every year.

Studies have also shown that almost half the food thrown away is edible.

'Convenient way'

From the summer, householders will be able to place items such as vegetable peelings, meat, bones, fish, bread and plate scrapings into a kitchen caddy, which in turn will be put into kerbside recycling boxes.

The waste will be emptied into a specially designed, covered container on the back of bin lorries. The waste will then be sent to a treatment contractor for "in-vessel" composting.

Stirling Council's waste manger David Hopper said: "It is a convenient way to have food waste collected every week.

"It also stops an average of 2kg of food waste per week from a participating household from going to landfill.

"If only half of the households across the Stirling Council area regularly used a food waste caddy, this could result in around 38 tonnes per week diverted from landfill."

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