A bid to reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill is being launched by Huntingdonshire District Council.

Around 1,000 homes in the Loves Farm area of St Neots will take part in a trial scheme involving the use of kitchen caddies and paper liners to collect the waste.

It has also told householders that they could freeze food waste so it can be stored safely until the night before the fortnightly green bin collection.

The council has found that a third of waste going into its grey bins was food which ended up in landfill sites where it created the greenhouse gas methane.

Householders have told the authority that they do not like putting loose food waste into the green garden bins and that having a caddy to collect the material would help.

In the six month trial half those taking part will be issued with a small kitchen caddy and the rest will receive paper liners in addition, with the amount of waste collected being compared with previous years.

Cllr Marge Beuttell, responsible for operations and environment, said: “The council is committed to diverting waste from landfill. This trial will support that pledge.

“We hope that residents take full advantage of this trial and that it is a success, enabling us to roll it out further.”

The council said that around a third of the waste going into its grey refuse bins was food waste - more than the amount collected in the green garden bins.

The council urged householders to put food waste in the green garden bin or a home compost bin.

It said research showed that many householders did not like having to put loose food waste into their green bins and felt that having a kitchen caddy and compostable liners would help them compost more.

The council said tips for disposing of food waste included adding it to green bins, either loose, wrapped in newspaper paper liners, waste could be put in a paper-lined container to absorb liquid run-off and it could be frozen then put into the green bin the night before the fortnightly collection.