Edinburgh's recycled food waste 'boils 1.75 million kettles'

Edinburgh residents are now recycling 700 tonnes of food waste - enough to generate electricity to boil 1.75 million kettles.

More than 163,000 food waste caddies are collected in Edinburgh each week.

However, the council is urging more people in the capital to recycle their food waste.

The first pilot food waste collections in Edinburgh began in spring 2011. One food caddy generates enough electricity to power a TV for five hours.

Food waste from Edinburgh residents goes to the food waste treatment facility at Millerhill and into an anaerobic digester.

It breaks it down and produces gas, which is used to power Millerhill and goes into the national grid.

The City of Edinburgh Council does not get paid for the waste.

Lesley Macinnes, City of Edinburgh Council's environment convener, said: "Friday's global climate strike and the great turnout at Edinburgh's march highlighted the huge appetite to wage war on waste and protect our planet's vital resources.

"Reducing consumption is clearly the very first step we need to master, but when we do have leftover food waste it's important to recycle it.

"Recycling your food waste is really so simple to do but it makes an enormous difference.

"Every tonne of food waste can generate enough electricity to boil 2,500 kettles - and we send 700 tonnes for recycling in Edinburgh each month, so that's a lot of cups of tea."