A campaign to encourage more food waste recycling in Somerset is bearing fruit – despite concerns about how green the marketing is.

The Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) recently launched its Slim My Waste, Feed My Face campaign, encouraging people to decorate their bins to encourage more food waste to be recycled rather than be sent to landfill.

The green credentials of the scheme have been questioned, including whether the stickers being sent to every household are made of single use plastic.

But the SWP has said the materials are fully recyclable – and that the campaign has already led to increased recycling at the kerbside.

At present, the campaign has only been rolled out to half the county, with stickers being sent in the post to the remainder, including West Somerset, over the coming weeks.

All food waste collected is sent to the SWP’s anaerobic digestion plant near Bridgwater, providing power for homes and compost for local farmers.

In the area which has received stickers, food waste recycling has increased by around 30 per cent and more than 8,500 additional food waste containers have been requested by families.

The stickers allow people to decorate their food bins with facial expressions and to put a yellow tape measure around their refuse bins as a reminder not to dump food waste in them.

An SWP spokesman said: “Recycling food waste is far cheaper, more productive and less polluting than burying it in landfill to generate greenhouse gases.

“By nudging people to do the right thing, the campaign will swiftly make back all its costs and generate further saving for other vital local services.

“The stickers and tape have drawn plenty of attention and raised some eyebrows, but they certainly seem to have got people thinking and recycling more.

“We knew from Bristol Waste Company’s development of this campaign that it would more than pay its way, but these results have exceeded our expectations – in terms of overall environmental benefit and financially.

“The carbon saving from the food waste we’re collecting will far outweigh the environmental impact of the tape and stickers.”

As part of the campaign, the SWP has teamed up with a dozen Co-op stores in Somerset, who are giving out both kitchen caddies and outside food waste bins.

These include those in Williton and The Avenue in Minehead.

New bins can also be ordered online via www.somersetwaste.gov.uk.