Residents have helped their local council save more than £500,000 after thousands of tonnes of food waste were thrown away for recycling.

Since then Weekly food waste collection application has been launched In November 2023, 4,440 tonnes of food scraps were distributed for collection to almost every home in Swindon.

Councilor Chris Watts said Swindon City Council was trying to be “as responsible as possible”.

He added: “Although we are in a great position to send very little waste to landfill, we could make things even better if we could recycle more of our waste, including both food and plastic.”

Although the administration has to pay for the collection, processing or storage of waste, it makes a small profit from recycling food waste.

Mr Watts wants to encourage more people to throw away food scraps such as leftovers, vegetable peelings, meat and fish bones, and to recycle more of their household waste in general.

He added: “Thank you to everyone who has supported our new food waste collection service since it was introduced and helped us achieve a greener Swindon.”

The city council wants to help more people recycle their food waste and is recommending they order indoor and outdoor food waste bins from its website.

All food waste collected in Swindon is taken to a company in Wiltshire where it is broken down through a process called anaerobic digestion. This produces methane, which is collected and converted into biogas that is used to generate electricity.