Enough food has been collected in the first six months of Swindon Borough Council’s food waste trial to power a street of 30 houses for a year.

More than 380,000 kilograms of vegetable peelings, bones and leftovers have been collected from 11,000 houses across Swindon since September.

And the council has announced that it is to extend the trial until August.

The food collected is processed in Wiltshire at an anaerobic digestion plant where it is recycled into environmentally friendly fertiliser and energy to power homes.

Cabinet member for transport and the environment Maureen Penny said: “I am thrilled that so many residents have been taking part in the food waste trial, the amount of food waste we have collected has exceeded all of our expectations.

“I hope that residents continue to make the most of all of our recycling services and help us to meet government recycling targets by the end of the year.

“We are continually looking at ways we can become more sustainable and reduce the amount of waste we are producing and we always encourage residents to do the same.”

Those involved in the trial should continue to put their food waste out in their green caddy as usual for weekly collection.

Mark Trevor who lives in Park South is in one of the streets where food waste is collected.

He said: “I wasn’t sure about it at first, but I think it’s okay now. I thought it was going to be too much fuss. But it’s quite simple, once you remember, to put your food waste in the box, and then take the bag out once a week.

“It doesn’t get smelly or anything, although we’ve only been doing it in the winter, so I don’t know what it’ll be like if we get a hot summer.”

Another Park South householder, Claire Tench doesn’t have her food waste collected. She hopes the trial will be extended to the whole of the borough. “I wanted to be in the areas where they collected it," she said. " I don’t have much of a garden, so I can’t compost stuff. But ever since I read about how much food waste there is I’ve been really noticing how much I’m putting in the rubbish, and since the trial started I’ve really wanted to be able to have it collected.”

The council says that since the trial started less non-recyclable waste has been collected, meaning less goes to landfill or to be treated and turned into industrial fuel at the Waterside plant in Cheney Manor.

Labour councillors have been critical of the Conservative administration for being over-cautious with food waste collections, saying a Labour council would bring it in borough-wide as soon as possible.

People can give feedback at swindon.gov.uk/foodwaste until March 31.