Landfill is a costly option for Peterborough City Council, with strict targets set by central Government in a bid to ease the mounting problem of limited landfill space.

The average Peterborough family produces a tonne of waste every year. This is the equivalent in weight of a family sized car and would fill a whole garage. Of this waste produced each year, on average, two thirds could be recycled or composted through the green recycling bins and brown waste bins.

The revolutionary Belu bottle is made from a 100 per cent renewable resource – corn – and can be commercially composted back to soil in 12 weeks, roughly a million years faster than traditional plastics.

Mai Simonsen, one of the founding members of Belu, said: "The potential for helping the planet is enormous. This can dramatically reduce the amount of rubbish going into landfills and gives everyone an easy way to help protect the environment."

The arrival of Belu has been welcomed by city council cabinet member for the environment Councillor Graham Murphy, and the Peterborough branch of Friends of the Earth.

Cllr Murphy said: "This appears to be a great idea. We're always encouraging people to recycle and supermarkets to examine the amount of packaging they use. Plastic bottles are a large part of what we recycle and we also welcome moves for bottles that compost so quickly. It all takes away from landfill."

Matthew Clements, of Peterborough Friends of the Earth, added: "Plastic is a big problem because it is so indestructible. This kind of compostable bottle is welcomed. In the first instance, however, we need to reduce our usage of packaging, the next step is to recycle and, if that's not possible, making sure packaging is biodegradable is important."

The Belu bottle does not degrade on the store shelf. It will only biodegrade under certain conditions – a combination of high heat, humidity and micro-organisms.

As yet, there is no corn cap and people are reminded to recycle the cap with the rest of their household plastic.

A Tesco spokesperson said: "We know that our customers care about the environment and want to be able to do their bit.

"We are working hard to increase and improve our ranges so that we can give those customers the opportunity to pick a more environmentally-friendly option.

"We are confident that customers will love the Belu bottled water and hope it will be a real success."

The "bio-bottle" is the latest initiative from London-based Belu, an environmental initiative which contributes 100 per cent of its net profits to clean water projects.

Working with WaterAid, every bottle of water purchased in the UK provides someone in India or Africa with clean water for one month.

By sourcing its water in the UK, Belu also minimises long-distance transportation and the related environmental impact.

For more details, visit www.belu.org.

Q & A:

What does Belu mean?

The beauty of water. Bella, Bellissimo, Belu . . .

What are bio-bottles made of?

Bio-bottles are made from corn. The corn goes through a fermentation and distillation process similar to making corn whisky and is reduced to lactic acid, which you can also find in ice cream and pickles. This lactic acid is then spun and moulded into bottles.

Can I eat a bio-bottle?

Belu advise against it. It could be done in theory but only after it has been composted at which point it isn't very appetising.

Why doesn't the bio-bottle degrade on the store shelf?

The bio-bottle will only biodegrade under certain conditions – a combination of high heat, humidity and micro organisms.

Is the cap compostable?

There is no corn cap yet. Until there is, recycle the cap with the rest of your household plastic.

How do you pronounce Belu?

Belloo.

Support for shopping bag initiative

RECYCLING officers from Peterborough City Council will be supporting a new initiative to reduce the number of plastic shopping bags being used by shoppers at the Tesco store in Serpentine Green.

City council waste minimisation officer Rebecca Jackson said plastic shopping bags represent a large proportion of household waste that was dumped in landfill sites each week.

She said: "We welcome Tesco's decision to offer Clubcard points as a reward for shoppers who choose to re-use plastic carrier bags, bags for life or fabric shopping bags."

"It is estimated that around 17.5 billion plastic bags are used in the UK every year – equivalent to about 290 plastic bags per person. Research also shows that plastic carrier bags are used on average for 20 minutes before being put in the bin."

Tesco is launching the Green Clubcard initiative with prime-time television commercials featuring popular celebrities, including Martine McCutcheon, Paul Daniels, Ronnie Corbett, Alan Whicker, Alan Titchmarsh and Frankie Dettori.

Green points will be highlighted on Clubcard statements so that customers can clearly see the rewards available.