Residents in East Cambridgeshire no longer have to worry about leftover Halloween pumpkins creating a recycling horror story thanks to the District Council teaming up with Ellgia Recycling.

Normally the authority encourages people to put food waste in their green wheelie bins, however this Halloween special pumpkin recycling bins will be located at the Council offices on Nutholt Lane in Ely.

The bins will be in place from Monday 2 to Friday 13 November and will be emptied by locally based Ellgia Recycling. Ellgia will use the vegetables to help create electricity by a process known as anaerobic digestion with any material left at the end of the process used to make fertiliser for use on nearby farms.

Cllr Julia Huffer, waste and recycling champion of ECDC, said: “In east Cambridgeshire, we are developing an excellent record for recycling thanks to the efforts of our residents putting their waste out to recycle.

“By teaming up with Ely based Ellgia Recycling this Halloween, we are doing something a little different to help with the disposal of what I’m sure will be quite a lot of pumpkins.

“Their idea to collect what once were scary and often very artistic pumpkins is a great initiative and I hope we can create a lot of electricity through this process.”

Joe Rudd, of Ellgia Recycling, said: “Each year tonnes of pumpkins are thrown away and we’re pledging to ensure that some of this food is recycled and made into green energy.”