Schoolchildren in Brentwood are doing their bit for the environment, demonstrating just how easy it is to recycle food waste.

Essex County Council, which is responsible for the disposal of the county’s household waste, is planning to launch a new food waste campaign later this year in line with its Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy, which aims to minimise landfill and drive new waste prevention and recycling initiatives.

Although households in Essex are recycling and composting over 52 per cent of their waste, the county council’s ambition is to reach 60 per cent by 2020.

Many schools are already showing just how easy recycling food can be.

In Brentwood, St Helen’s Infant School is among the schools which now have food waste collected by Brentwood Borough Council and processed by Essex County Council.

Cllr Malcolm Buckley, Essex County Council’s deputy cabinet member for waste and recycling, said: "Unfortunately food waste still makes up a significant amount of ‘black bag’ or ‘black bin’ (residual) household waste in Essex.

“However, as many of the county’s schools are demonstrating, by taking a few simple steps we can go a long way to tackling that.

“Firstly, it is important to ensure we are not buying more food than we need in the first place and that we re-use any leftovers.

“With food waste collections in operation in every district and borough in the county, any food left over can then very easily be recycled and I would appeal to residents to follow the lead of our schools in doing just that.”

Sheila Rainsford, headteacher at St Helen’s Infant School, said: “We only had a kitchen installed in September after the free school meals initiative was introduced.

"When I looked into it I couldn’t believe how easy it was to sign up to have our food waste collected and recycled.

“It is really important that younger generations learn about the environment and what they can do to help, and as a school we work hard to achieve that.”

For tips on how to reduce your food waste, re-use and recycle, visit http://www.recycleforessex.com/ For more information about food waste collections in Brentwood, visit http://www.brentwood.gov.uk/index.php?cid=2008