South Kesteven food waste recycling collection pilot results revealed

The trial, run by the county council-led Lincolnshire Waste Partnership, aimed to gauge participation rates of the potential new service.

It sees it collect the waste and process it into soil conditioner for farmers, which then creates electricity.

A report before the partnership next week says around six tonnes per week was collected across a collection round of 4,508 properties – with each household estimated to put out 1.78kg of food waste a week.

The 12-month trial collected food waste from selected homes in several villages including Rippingale and Long Benington as well as Grantham, Stamford, Bourne and The Deepings.

Recycling rates across the district in general have also increased by more than 11 per cent with nearly half of waste now recycled.

The report concludes: “The food waste pilot is proving to have been a great success. The scheme has achieved most of its original objectives.

“This will benefit the LWP, giving it greater confidence, based on real evidence that food waste collections in Lincolnshire would be accepted by the public and will deliver the overall levels of benefits identified.”

The council saw 80.2 per cent of properties in the pilot get involved, compared to averages between 35-55 per cent in similar pilots elsewhere in the country.

Councillors will be told at next Thursday’s meeting that a decision to continue the trial has already been taken to build further evidence.

It is hoped to trial a number of different collection methods to the one used in the past year, including having a separate dedicated food waste trial starting in autumn.