The trust has teamed up with Powys Council and, due to its runaway success, the scheme is expanding. It aims to take in Welshpool, Montgomery and the village of Guilsfield, plus Newtown where it already operates.

This will effectively double the number of homes it serves to 10,300.
Its composter in Newtown means they'll be selling compost generated from the food waste. The waste includes meat and cooked foods – stuff which often gets trashed instead of getting composted.

In Ludlow, using a biodigester, the project also turns waste food into electricity.

This touches upon a debate that I took part in this week on the Energy Bill, which included "feed-in tariffs."

Feed-in-tariffs guarantee a set price for anyone who produces their energy from a renewable source, with surplus electricity being fed back into the national grid. If you've got a solar panel and it produces a bit of spare electricity, you can sell it on the National Grid.

It's almost as simple as that.

This encourages people to install micro-generation technologies at home. The potential to make a profit becomes an environmental force for change.

Does it work? You bet! Feed-in tariffs in other European countries, including Germany and Denmark provide a huge incentive for the adoption of renewable energy.

That's what's happened in Germany. And in Denmark 20 per cent of electricity is now produced from renewable sources.

As energy prices continue to rise, many people are living in fuel poverty. Feed-in-tariffs could be part of the answer – bringing huge benefits to consumers – where composting and other methods can give cheaper power.

If we're to tackle climate change and meet the EU target of 20 per cent electricity from renewables by 2020, plus our own national targets, then we really need to get on with things like this (in fact the UK's at the bottom of the EU renewables league!).

And that's not all. We also have an environmental skills shortage. I've been lobbying Government to address this shortfall; and I'm pleased to report the Minister has now announced a commitment to addressing this problem in the forthcoming consultation on the renewable energy strategy.

I hope they'll include the Centre for Alternative technology in this, as they're building a whole new centre at their headquarters to train the next generation of eco-expert to achieve this very end.

I'm proud Montgomeryshire is embracing innovative methods to reduce carbon emissions and develop renewable energy sources.

Turning old food into new volts is part of the future – and a hint of the profits ahead for those willing to march towards the new territories of clean energy.