Around Ealing April 2018 | Page 21

RECYCLING What happens to my food waste? HEAT AND ELECTRICITY BIOGAS FOOD WASTE ANAEROBIC DIGESTION SOIL FERTILISER because leftovers and out-of-date food can actually be a force for good. You just need to recycle it instead of dumping it. Most households in the borough can use the council’s weekly food waste collection. It is easy. All you have to do is place your leftovers, scrapings, tea bags, peelings and out-of-date food in your green food waste bin, and put the bin out on your collection day each week. As you can see in the graphic on ons i t c e l l Co change no will be over There ctions e ll o c r to you May ter and s a E e h t . olidays bank h this page, all of the food recycling that Ealing Council collects is taken to a special processing plant – where it is broken down and gets converted into electricity that gets pushed into the national grid to heat and light homes. What is left is used as fertiliser for farms. None of it goes to waste. For details of the new Ealing recycling app, turn to page 30. Waste less, save money Another way to help is to throw away less food in the first place. In the UK, we throw away seven million tonnes of food and drink from our homes every year, a lot of which could have been used. This costs the average household £470 a year. There are two main reasons why we throw away good food: We buy or make too much or we do not use it in time. Remember: n Use by date on food packaging is about safety n Best before date is about quality n Freezing acts as a pause button. You can freeze pretty much everything. It is safe to freeze food up until the use by date. Find out more at www.food.gov.uk or www.lovefoodhatewaste.com around ealing    April 2018 21