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Stoke Prior First School in Bromsgrove, whose school dinners are supplied by education catering specialists AiP, has signed up to a new waste food recycling scheme thanks to pupil power and the school’s own Eco Council.

The school wanted to find an environmentally friendly way to dispose of increasing amounts of food waste. It’s Eco Council made up of children in every year group called Eco Warriors who came up with a green initiative which will see around 53kg of food waste recycled each week.

Head Teacher Leigh Satchwell, said: “With an increase in hot school meals, we were struggling to find an effective and efficient solution to manage the increase in food waste.

“It was important that we found a solution that would meet the standards of our Eco Council and would engage the students to think about where their food comes from and what happens to their leftovers. So far, we couldn’t be happier with the food recycling bins and caddies provided by Andigestion.”

Under the new arrangement with food waste recycler Andigestion, Stoke Prior’s food waste will be taken from its onsite kitchen and classrooms to the company’s anaerobic digestion plant in neighbouring Gloucestershire.

Here it will be processed and turned into biomethane gas which is put into the National Grid as ‘green energy’ for use in local homes, as well as a liquid fertiliser for use by local farmers in place of carbon intensive chemical fertilisers.

As well as recycling their food waste, the school’s Eco Warriors also undertake daily composting, have solar panels on site and educate their fellow students about the environment.