Organisers of a Slaithwaite food festival are cutting the amount of waste they leave behind.

The Colne Valley Food Festival and Totally Locally Street Market will be held in the village on Sunday.

The event has gone down well with foodies in the Colne Valley.

But organisers have been uncomfortable with the amount of plastic containers, cups and beakers left to dispose of – along with waste food.

This year Susan Thomas, of Totally Locally Slaithwaite, hopes to go virtually “waste-free” and compost the lot!

She has persuaded food stalls to dump the traditional yellow polystyrene trays and use containers made from sugarcane bagasse instead.

Bagasse is the fibre left over when sugarcane stalks have been crushed.

Drinks will be served in bio-plastic made from cornstarch.

Both the environmentally-friendly containers and cups can be composted, along with the leftover food.

Eco firm Packaging Environmental gave a discount on the compostable food packaging while Kirklees Council has provided three home composting bins.

Susan said: “We love doing these events but we have felt pretty uncomfortable about the amount of waste which can be left behind, particularly polystyrene food containers and excess food, most of it destined for landfill or the Kirklees incinerator.

“This year we decided to try to create no waste at all – except what can be composted.”

Stallholders and traders had to pay a bit extra for the compostable packaging but were happy to jump on board.

Apart from the three composters donated by Kirklees, the organisers have bought two more to shrink their environmental footprint as small as possible.

The festival includes food and drinks stalls and arts, crafts, music and dance. It runs from 11am to 4pm.