We were pleased to mark the second annual Food Waste Action Week with a visit to our Bishops Cleeve site by Councillor Iain Dobie, Cheltenham Borough Council’s cabinet member for recycling, waste and street services.

The UK throws away more than 6m tonnes of household food waste a year, the majority of which (4.5m tonnes or 10m meals) is food that could have been eaten.

‘’It was great to visit Andigestion to see what goes into turning food waste into renewable energy and fertiliser, but it’s astonishing to see the enormous volume of food thrown away each week,” said Cllr Dobie.

“Last year, a belly busting 3,916.90 tonnes of food was collected from across Cheltenham.  A big thank you if you already reduce, reuse and recycle your food waste, but we need to do more to prevent needless waste and to help protect the planet.’’

The anaerobic digestion process at our Bishops Cleeve site, which processes up to 34,000 tonnes of the region’s food waste each year, produces biomethane which is fed into the national grid and contributes enough energy for around 10,000 homes a year.