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

From Weekly food waste collection was implemented. For almost every household in Swindon in November 2023, 4,440 tonnes of food scraps were collected.

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

He added: “Although we are in a great position because we send so little waste to landfill, we could make things even better by recycling more waste, including food and plastics.”

While the authority has to pay for the waste to be removed and processed or landfilled, it makes a small profit from recycling food waste.

Watts wants to encourage more people to take out food scraps, such as leftovers, vegetable peelings and meat and fish bones, and to recycle more household waste in general.

He added: “Thank you to everyone who has supported our new food waste collection service since its introduction, helping us achieve a greener Swindon.”

The council wants to help more people recycle their food waste and suggests they order indoor and outdoor food waste bins on their website.

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