New figures from East Devon District Council show that the council is good at recycling - reusing almost 60% of the material produced in households.

A spokesman for EDDC said: "After we recycle everything we can, everything else, known as residual waste, goes to the Energy from Waste plant (EfW) in Exeter run by Devon County Council. This means that East Devon District Council does not use landfill to dispose of waste collected from households.

At the Exeter Food Waste plant, the waste is used as fuel to generate electricity. At the end of the process, all of the ash produced is collected to be recycled. The ash from the combustion chamber is taken to a facility where, after metals are recovered for recycling, it is used to make construction material. The ash recovered from the flue is taken to a specialist processor to be recycled into building aggregate.

The spokesman added: "Using the EfW means, that after recycling as much as we can, we still recover as much value as possible from the refuse that is left over. However, the more that we can reduce what we use in the first place and the more we recycle from the kerbside or at household recycling centres, reduces the amount we need to send to the EfW."