TENS of thousands of householders across Glasgow will be asked to recycle their food waste from next year.

The nine-month trial, which will affect 47,000 properties and will cost about £800,000, will eventually be extended across the city.

Earlier this year, the Scottish Government introduced regulations insisting councils must have a separate food waste collection service in place by January 2016.

There will be a ban on all organic material going into landfill sites by the end of 2020.

In an attempt to meet the new targets, the city council plans to introduce food recycling bins to homes and flats across the city.

Around 32,000 houses in the South-East that get a kerbside collection will each be issued with a five-litre bin that can be kept in the kitchen and a 25-litre outdoor bin.

Householders will be expected to tip the rubbish from the small container into the larger one outside.

A similar scheme already operates in some areas of North Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, Dundee and Falkirk.

The service will also be tried on a route that takes in 11,600 households living in 1658 tenements in Glasgow's East End.

Each home will get a five-litre caddy bin while a 240-litre communal bin will be provided in the back court.

A total of 23 multi-story blocks in Polmadie involving 2300 properties have also been chosen for the pilot.

Again, each householder will get a small bin and will have to transfer the food waste to a 500-litre communal bin next to the multi-storey block.

Food waste can include:

l Raw and cooked meat, including fat and bones.

l Raw and cooked fish, including bones and shells.

l Eggs and eggshells.

l All dairy products.

l Raw and cooked vegetables.

l Fruit, bread and cakes.

l Rice, pasta and beans.

l Tea bags and coffee grounds.

l Cooking oil, lard and other fats.

l Tinned and dry pet foods.

The £800,000 cost of the trial includes buying the bins and employing seven additional staff.

Separate collection vehicles will also be needed because the leftovers cannot be mixed in with other rubbish.

It is estimated it will result in 1592 tonnes of food waste being collected, but will boost the city's recycling rate by only 0.6%.

Jim Coleman, the council's spokesman for sustainability and transport, said: "The introduction of separate food waste collections is a statutory requirement as introduced in the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012.

"If, as a result of the trial, a separate food waste collection is introduced citywide, almost 12,000 tonnes of food wastes will be diverted from landfill on an annual basis from all three property types.

"This will contribute about 4.9% to the household recycling rate citywide."

Extending the scheme to all 200,000 homes in the city is expected to cost about £5million.

A publicity campaign will be launched to let people know about the new food collections and the importance of taking part.

The council will have to pay for the leftovers to be treated at commercial plants, which will be an added cost.

Mr Coleman said: "Glasgow aims to be a sustainable city and our historic reliance on expensive landfill is neither environmentally nor economically sustainable.

"We have already started to change how the city deals with waste – giving people the chance to recycle more and investing to divert from landfill what we can't recycle.

"A separate recycling collection for food is the next step in achieving a Zero Waste Scotland and a more sustainable city.

"Recycling food waste will also assist in protecting the environment by reducing the requirement to extract, process and refine raw materials and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfill."

From next month, businesses such as restaurants and staff canteens will also be forced by law to ensure food waste is collected and disposed of separately from any other rubbish.

vivienne.nicoll@ eveningtimes.co.uk