Greens say that such a move would also improve the city’s poor recycling rate, reduce costs and even generate revenue for the City Council.

The Green Party strongly opposes a return to weekly black bin collections. Andrew Bell, Exeter Green Party policy officer said:

“Returning to weekly collections would be disastrous for the city. Evidence shows that weekly collections reduce recycling rates and it would be hugely expensive to implement anyway. Given Exeter’s dismal recycling rate we have to introduce measures that are going to increase rather than reduce recycling rates. The collection of weekly food waste is the answer. When Bristol first introduced this, its recycling rate jumped from 18 per cent to 37 per cent in just a year and other parts of Devon such as Teignbridge are already successfully collecting food waste. This will also address residents concerns over fortnightly bin collections by removing the element of waste responsible for smells and vermin.”

The Green Party says that the collection of food waste would also enable the City Council to generate income from selling the energy produced through the process of converting food waste to compost. The process, known as anaerobic digestion, creates biogas that can be used to generate electricity and heat. This heat can be used to heat community buildings such as swimming pools or even a network of households. The electricity could be exported to the national grid and generate an income for the council. The end compost can be used as a safe fertilizer on agricultural land.

Audaye Elesedy, Chair of Exeter Green Party said:

"We need to make lasting changes that are beneficial to Exeter's waste problems and are sensitive to the needs of the future. If the council is serious about dealing with Exeter's waste they should be implementing the progressive solutions that the Green Party is putting forward on waste”.