A QUARTER of the waste in a borough's general rubbish bins is edible food a new survey has revealed.

Blackburn with Darwen Council recently audited the contents of its Burgundy bins.

Its environment boss Cllr Jim Smith was shocked to find that half the contents were discarded food of which half was still fit to eat.

The means households in the borough are throwing away £700 worth of edible food every year.

This means Blackburn with Darwen Council is having to spend more than £750,000 of council tax disposing of it.

Now the authority urging residents to take part in a new survey to help get to the bottom of the problem as part of a new campaign.

And, they’ve teamed up with their waste partner, SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, to offer residents a chance to win £700 for filling it in.

Cllr Smith said: “Our new research shows that shockingly half of the waste in our burgundy bins is food with half of that being classed as edible and within the sell by date.

“On average, each household is throwing out a third of what they buy each week at the supermarket.

"It amounts to around £60 a month – more than £700 a year which is such a lot of money!

“With the cost of living soaring and food prices on the rise, that’s going up and up and of course, there’s a huge cost to our planet too with food waste being a significant contributor to climate change.

“We really want to highlight the issue and make people aware that they are literally throwing good money in the bin every single day.

“We want residents to think about the food they are buying, how they’re storing it and things like portion sizes.

"The survey will help us better understand the reasons behind the substantial food waste.

"I do hope residents will take a few minutes to fill it in."

A link to enter the survey can be found on the council’s recycling website by Friday September 23.

Victoria Crabtree, regional manager for SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, said: “We want to encourage every resident in the borough to reduce the amount of food waste they produce as, not only is it damaging to the environment, but it is also such a waste of their hard-earned money."