Food waste will be collected from businesses across North Norfolk from next month in a trial scheme.But the aim of sending it to composting plant will not be achieved immediately and the waste will end up in landfill sites.

Food waste will be collected from businesses across North Norfolk from next month in a trial scheme.

But the aim of sending it to composting plant will not be achieved immediately and the waste will end up in landfill sites.

Starting in April a district council scheme will collect business food waste in 240-litre wheeled bins at a cheaper rate than normal rubbish collections.

It is estimated some businesses could save up to 30pc of their waste costs by using the new service.

But the waste cannot be composted unless a planned local plant, at Marsham, gets the go- ahead, or there are enough customers to make transporting it to an existing site in Suffolk economically and environmentally viable.

The council said yesterday that if the local composting facility went ahead, it was more likely the business service would continue, and be extended to households, who would be able to add food to their brown garden waste bins.

Trade food waste collections will cost £4.24 a time, excluding VAT, which is just over £220 a year for weekly collections.

It will allow disposal of all food waste, including cooked and raw food, meat, fish and bones, vegetables and dairy products, and newspaper or cardboard contaminated with food waste or used to wrap it.

The council will give businesses the wheeled bin and a 40-litre 'kitchen caddy' storage container, plus four compostable sacks a week, more of which can be bought for £1.50 for a roll of 10).

Traders can have as many bins as they wish, paying per lift of each bin, and there will be discounts for bigger customers.

Councillor Brian Hannah, cabinet member for waste and recycling, said: “We need to be sensitive about the environmental impact of this scheme. In the earliest weeks, we may simply not have enough customers to justify long journeys to a composting facility. That number of 'waste miles' would do more harm than good. But it will be cheaper from the outset for businesses, and the council will switch to composting as soon as possible.”

Visit www.northnorfolk.org/business for more information about trade waste.