Food waste recycling collections are set to start in Bicester and Kidlington in the autumn.

Residents will be able to increase the amount of household waste recycled in the Cherwell district by putting fruit and vegetable peelings, food scraps and teabags in their brown bins.

The move comes after Oxfordshire County Council signed a 15-year contract with Agrivert, which is based near Enstone, to provide food waste composting facilities for the county.

Cherwell District Council’s executive has given the green light to introduce the scheme, starting with Bicester, Kidlington and surrounding villages from October. It will then be rolled out to Banbury from March next year.

Each household will be given a five-litre kichen caddy to collect waste food, which can then be transferred to brown bins currently used only for garden waste, for collection.

Food waste will be composted using a process called In Vessel Composting. Agrivert has planning permission to build a new unit to process the waste at Ardley.

The council has been given £120,000 by the Oxfordshire Waste Partnership towards start-up costs.

Executive member for community, health and environment George Reynolds said: “Cherwell is committed to reducing the amount of food waste that is dumped in landfill.

“That’s why we want to roll out food waste composting as soon as possible.

“It’s an essential component of our push to take our recycling rate to 50 per cent, and beyond. That’s good news for the environment, as well as council tax payers, who won’t be faced with increasing landfill taxes.”