SOMERSET’s biggest-ever food recycling campaign, Slim My Waste, Feed My Face, is about to get underway.

Rolling out in coming weeks, the campaign will see thousands of rubbish and food bins transformed into colourful eye-catching reminders to recycle every scrap of food waste.

Slim My Waste, Feed My Face teams will give every household’s rubbish bin a bright yellow tape measure roun its middle, a ‘no food waste’ notice on top, and deliver each home an information pack on why food recycling is so important.

Fun stickers in each Slim My Waste pack means every resident can decorate their bin to give it a face and personality. If they then share the pictures on social media, they stand a chance to win free eco-goodies.

Slim My Waste, Feed My Face has already proved a big hit in Bristol, which saw a jump in food waste recycling, while earlier, less colourful food campaigns by Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) were also a success.

No amount is too small – recycling six tea bags produces enough electricity to boil a kettle for another cuppa.

And big savings are possible. If every scrap of Somerset’s food waste was recycled, it would save almost £1 million a year to fund other vital local services.

Food waste is the worst material to be sent to costly and wasteful landfill, especially as it decays to produce powerful climate change gases.

According to Zero Waste Scotland, food waste is a bigger cause of climate change than plastic.

The county pioneered weekly collections more than a decade ago and now most people in Somerset recycle their food waste – 62 per cent whereas the national average is around 42 per cent.

But there is more to do as the average Somerset rubbish still has too much food waste. Analysis of waste shows that 26 per cent of rubbish in bins is food and over one third of that food (36 per cent) is still in its packaging, including unopened and out of date food.

Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) managing director Mickey Green said: “This fun campaign has a very serious aim. While Somerset families recycle a lot, any food in rubbish bins is a very costly waste of a valuable resource.

“We are confident that this campaign will have a big impact, recycling thousands of tonnes of food waste, reducing our carbon emissions and saving hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

For about half the cost of landfill, all food waste can be recycled in Somerset by the anaerobic digestion plant near Bridgwater into electricity to power homes and nutrient-rich farm compost to grow more food.

Somerset households produce 42,000 tonnes of food waste a year. If every scrap was recycled at the anaerobic digestion plant, it would save £950,000 and 882 tonnes CO2 equivalent a year.

All food waste – raw, cooked, fresh or ‘off’, meat, fish, fruit or veg, pasta, cereal, bread and all plate scrapings – can be recycled every week, wrapped in newspaper or compostable bags.

Any home needing a free food waste bin should order one online at www.somersetwaste.gov.uk/order-containers.

Full details of Slim My Waste, Feed My Face can be found on the SWP website’s ‘slimmywaste’ link.

There will be frequent updates on Slim My Waste, Feed My Face on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtags #Slimmywaste and #FeedmyfaceSWP, including the shared images of the decorated food waste bins.