Thousands more residents on Islington's estates will soon be able to recycle their food waste instead of sending it to landfill.
Households are being given small brown kitchen caddies, with corn starch liners, to collect their old teabags, vegetable peelings, scraps and other waste food.
When the bags are full residents can tie them and put them into larger brown bins on estates for collection. The new scheme will reach around 10,000 homes.
Recycling food waste helps cut odour and mess in household rubbish bins, reduces expensive landfill bills for taxpayers, and produces compost which is reused in Islington's parks.
Cllr Paul Smith, Islington Council's Executive Member for Environment, said: "This brings food waste recycling to thousands of Islington's residents who have not been offered this chance in the past.
"It's easy, convenient, and as well as helping the environment and making compost for Islington's parks, it should help keep household bins cleaner.
"I'm very pleased that so many more people on our estates will now be able to recycle food waste, a service which many other residents already enjoy."
Among the first estates to benefit will be Quaker Court, New Orleans, Hornsey Road Baths, Wedmore Street and Upper Hilldrop.
Recycling food waste also stops methane gas, which contributes to climate change, being produced by rotting food in landfill sites.
Food waste that can be recycled includes fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, whether raw or cooked (but not bones and carcasses); dairy products; bread, cakes and pastries; rice, pasta and beans; uneaten food from plates and old tea bags and coffee grounds.
The first new bins are being installed this month (August) and the last ones should be in place by March 2011.
For more on recycling in Islington see www.islington.gov.uk/Environment/RubbishAndRecycling
Page Last Updated: 25 August 2010