Swindon is about to become the first town in Wiltshire to collect food waste for recycling.

The council announced that selected areas of the town would be receiving the separate weekly collection of food waste following their waste strategy consultation last year.

And from September, approximately 11,000 households will trial the new service on a 26-week basis to test collection methods.

The council will then decide whether to roll out collections across the rest of the town.

Councillor Maureen Penny, cabinet member for highways and the environment, said: “Trialling food waste collections is one of the key actions from the waste strategy we agreed last year.

"This aims to protect our environment and make sure we can collect Swindon’s waste in a sustainable way.

“Food waste collections are carried out by many other councils up and down the country and can have a huge impact on hitting recycling targets set by the national government.”

The trial will follow bin collection routes not geographical areas, which means that not all households within a selected area will be part of the trial.

The trial areas include parts of Middleleaze, Nine Elms, Wroughton, Broome Manor, Marlborough Road, Park South, Broad Street, Coleview, Highworth, Cheney Manor, Gorsehill, Abbey Meads and Taw Hill.

If you live in one of these areas you are encouraged to visit swindon.gov.uk/foodwaste to check if your household is on a trial route.

The trial routes have been selected by the council to achieve the most accurate representation of the different demographics and housing types in Swindon.

During the trial period, there is potential for the town to divert up to 200 tonnes of food waste to be recycled and composted rather than used as fuel or sent to landfill.