CHILDREN from a Worcester school have created eye-catching panels for bin lorries to encourage people to waste less food.

The youngsters from Stanley Road Primary School were asked to design a poster for the lorries that would help spread the message of reducing food waste across the city.

Worcestershire County Council wants to get the message across that reducing food waste could help save millions of pounds in rubbish disposal costs.

The winning designs were by Maja Komocka from Year 2 and Jaza Lone from Year 6 and were unveiled by Councillor Anthony Blagg, cabinet member with responsibility for the environment.

Councillor Blagg said: "These posters are really eye catching and clearly show the message that we cannot continue to waste perfectly edible food, just because a banana has a slight bruise on it or you've succumbed to the buy one get one free offers in the supermarket.

"Over seven million tonnes of food is thrown away each year in the UK at a cost of over £12 billion.

"Every family could save over £700 a year just by throwing away less food.

"At Worcestershire County Council we want to reduce the amount of waste that we have to dispose of, which is currently around 264,000 tonnes.

"If each household in the county threw away just 10 per cent less food every year, not only would they save themselves money, but the county council would save £2.7m in disposal costs.

"This money could be better spent elsewhere within the county."

Councillor Jabba Riaz, Worcester city council cabinet member for Clean, Green and Leisure Services, said: “I’m very pleased the city council’s refuse lorries are displaying these fantastic posters, giving these talented youngsters the chance to make a great contribution to reducing food waste in our city.”

More information about reducing waste is available at letswasteless.com.