More than half of households in Cornwall admit to throwing away bread and leftover meals, writes Richard Whitehouse, local democracy reporter.

New figures from a survey carried out by Cornwall Council give an indication of just how much food is being wasted by Cornish residents.

The survey asked 4,000 people from across the county about their waste and recycling habits.

It found that 52% of households admitted to throwing away bread in the month prior to the questionnaire and the same amount admitted chucking out leftover cooked meals.

In addition 43% said they had thrown away vegetables and 36% said they had tossed fruit into the bin. However the survey also revealed that 14% of households in Cornwall said they did not throw away any food.

Cornwall Council is currently looking to introduce food waste collections so that food waste is not collected with normal household waste.

The survey carried out by the council asked respondents what their biggest concern would be about a food waste collection and found that 64% said they would need a bin or a caddy to collect the waste.

There were also concerns about attracting flies, foxes or vermin (33%) and that it might be too messy or smelly to collect food waste (30%).

When asked about attitudes to recycling 3% of respondents said they do not recycle. On the other side 70% said that they recycled as much material as they could, even if it requires extra effort.

Turning to why people did not recycle, the survey found the main reason was a lack of storage space for recyclables (44%).

However 4% said that they didn’t recycle because there was “no benefit to me” and a similar number said they didn’t know how or what to recycle.

When asked what would encourage people to recycle more 71% said collection of a wider range of materials. Just 2% said that nothing would encourage them to recycle more.