Separate weekly collections of food waste are being scrapped in Shropshire next month with the end of a three-year government-backed trial in three areas.

The council says it will save £225,000 a year by including food waste in its fortnightly collections of garden waste and cardboard – the method used successfully across the rest of south Shropshire for several years.

Extra funding was awarded to the former district council of South Shropshire in 2007 for the weekly service in Ludlow, Church Stretton and Craven Arms. The county, which gained unitary status in April last year, will now send this food waste to an in-vessel composter in Market Drayton rather than the local anaerobic digester in Ludlow, as the service is rolled out countywide.