Residents in Oxford and South and West Oxfordshire can now use plastic bags to line their food waste bins and caddies.
Organic waste business Agrivert’s anaerobic digestion plants near Wallingford and Cassington can now accept thin plastic bags, such as carrier bags, bread bags, paper wrappings or normal pedal bin liners.
Residents can also continue to use compostable bags or newspapers to line their caddies and bins, or put food straight in without any liner.
While food waste is recycled into gas for electricity and fertiliser for local farmland, any bags used as liners will now be removed at the processing plant and sent to another facility to be turned into energy.
The new policy is available to residents living in the districts of Oxford City, South Oxfordshire, the Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire.
Cllr Tony Harbour, cabinet member for waste at SODC, said: “We know that compostable bags can be expensive and easily tear, so it’s great news that the processing plant can now take plastic bags.
“We are very grateful to our residents for their efforts in recycling – which have helped our district to achieve the highest recycling rates in the country.
“We are always looking for opportunities to work with our partners to improve services for our residents and this is a good example of this.”
WODC’s Cllr Carol Reynolds added: “We know local people are keen recyclers as last year we [W Oxon] collected over 3,480 tonnes of food waste, but this change will help make it even easier, cheaper and cleaner for people to recycle their leftovers.”