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They have now given out more than 1,000 cashbacks to residents when they buy a Food Waste Disposer.

The councils approached the challenge of helping residents deal with the enormous amount of food waste that ends up in Worcestershire's landfill sites by offering them up to £80 towards the cost of buying and installing a food waste disposer.

Jeremy Howell-Thomas, project development officer for Worcestershire County Council, said:
"I'm delighted so many people have already chosen to take up this great offer. Food waste disposers are such a convenient way of dealing with messy food waste in the kitchen.

"1,000 cashbacks means 1,000 food waste disposers out there chomping away, diverting tonnes of food waste away from landfill."

Herefordshire Council is keen for residents to get into the habit of composting as much of their food waste as possible. However, for things that can't be easily composted like cooked food, residents are encouraged to invest in a food waste disposer.

Food waste equivalent to the weight of more than 150 fully-loaded jumbo jet aeroplanes is collected from homes in Herefordshire and Worcestershire each year. If this waste, which includes used teabags and stale sandwiches, gets sent to landfill, it rots and gives off methane – a potent greenhouse gas.

Food Waste Disposers are fitted to the kitchen sink and they break-down solids into a sludge consistency which is then washed away through the drainage system.  They have been in common use in America since the 1930s, but they have not been taken up so widely in the United Kingdom, except in commercial kitchens.

With the introduction of the European Landfill Directive, local authorities have a great urgency to divert whatever they can from landfill, including food waste.  Food Waste Disposers are not without controversy however.  Disposing of food in this manner increases the burden on sewage systems, which may have a potential to become blocked if not enough water is flowing throught the system.

With increased awareness of water usage, and greater uptake of grey water systems, the amount of water flowing may in fact decrease in the future.  According to research by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (2003), Food Waste Disposers "do not alter the risk of blockages, but they might reduce the time to blockage."

Disposing of food in this way also transfers processing costs from local authorities to water companies. As long as the receiving wastewater treatment plant has anaerobic digestion and can derive income from the biogas, the additional biogas more than offsets the additional treatment costs.