SLOP BUCKETS

Millions of homes face weekly collections of food slops after a trial involving thousands of households was hailed a success. Under the new system, households would have to separate vegetable peelings, teabags, half-eaten meals and raw meat from the rest of their rubbish and leave the waste out for collection in a sealed box once a week. Councils will either convert the slops into compost, or send them to anaerobic digesters, sealed tanks where food rots, producing methane which can be burned to produce electricity.

For the last few months, weekly food collections have been tested on 30,000 households in 17 local authorities around the UK. Early results found that four out of five homes were prepared to take part, with typical homes producing six pounds of peelings, half-eaten meals and stale food every week. The government's waste quango Wrap said the preliminary results had 'exceeded expectations' and is urging town halls to bring in weekly collections of food.

Homes taking part in the trials were given a special kitchen bin for slops and biodegradable binliners. The full binliners were then placed in a box left out with the normal rubbish collection. The slops bins, usually described as 'caddies' to make them more palatable, are designed for all food waste. Results of the trials show that four out of five homes in trial areas take part in the food collections, and produce between six and seven pounds of food waste a week. (Source: Daily Mail, Nov/07)