One-third of waste in household bins is food

Much of the food thrown out was still in unopened packaging.

The shocking percentage is reflected in national statistics, where it is estimated that one in every three bags of shopping goes to landfill.

Two other significant areas of waste are baby nappies and cardboard. Disposable nappies made up more than four per cent of the waste in the green bins that were surveyed.

Cardboard was five per cent of the green bin waste, but this is expected to fall after the new collection service is rolled out across the East Riding towards the end of the year.

The survey, by East Riding Council, is the latest in a series of nine through to 2012, monitoring what is put in the green bins and sent to landfill.

Towards the end of the year the council is launching a food waste collection service, which will involve delivering 150,000 kitchen caddies to households in the brown bins. They can be used for anything from teabags to chicken waste.

A further 7.5 per cent of the waste in the green bins was paper, cans and plastic bottles which should have been put in the blue bins for recycling. This compares with 10 per cent in the green bin survey in November 2007.

Coun Symon Fraser said: "These surveys are helping us determine which recycling and composting facilities and services will best help our residents.

"As a result of the earlier surveys, we delivered the brown bins for garden waste and last month announced the future collection of food waste and cardboard.

"The brown bins are a shining example of success, now taking more than 80 per cent of garden waste out of the green bins and, therefore, out of landfill. Instead, it is being recycled as compost."