EVERY day hundreds of tonnes of food are wasted in Scotland.

From leftover vegetables to out-of-date ready meals, a huge amount of foodstuffs is dumped in household bins and destined for landfill. It's estimated that Scottish households alone produce more than 560,000 tonnes of food waste every year.

When we check our own bins at the end of the day I sometimes find yoghurts which are way past their use-by date, plus rotten produce that has seen better days. But these items may now hold the key to a new energy source. Old food can be recycled and transformed into gas which can fuel electricity to power cars, power and heat homes and produce natural fertilisers.

With ever-increasing recycling targets and landfill tax rising it is important that all of Scotland looks at ways of recycling and making use of the waste resources on our doorsteps. Everyone is having to think about innovative ways to use waste. Restaurants are increasingly facing up to the issue of their waste food.

This all presents massive opportunities for Scottish Water. We are actively pursuing a sustainability agenda to become an increasingly low-carbon business, transforming Scotland's water infrastructure while helping to meet national renewable energy targets.

Scottish Water Horizons, our waste management and renewable power arm, is driving this agenda forward. It's a natural fit for us as we already deal with the sewage from 2.4 million homes across Scotland. Work is already under way to harness this huge resource in generating power.

Our Horizons team already runs a recycling centre at Cumbernauld, transformed from a redundant waste water treatment works. Known as an anaerobic digestion plant, the facility takes food waste and converts it into green electricity to the grid. It also takes garden waste and transforms it into compost used in regeneration of former industrial sites.

It was the first commercial site in the UK to combine anaerobic digestion technology with in-vessel composting. Deerdykes has recycled more than 30,000 tonnes of food waste and more than 140,000 tonnes of garden waste from local authorities and businesses since the site opened in 2005.

Scottish Water is keen to develop greater knowledge of best practice when managing composting/anaerobic digestion processes. We are collaborating in research with Cranfield University, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the UK Environment Agency to ensure every stage of the recycling process is managed with the utmost regard to the environment.

We are also the first company in Scotland and only the second in the UK with a bio-fertiliser to receive PAS110 accreditation – which recognises bio-fertilisers or soil improvers of consistent quality.

The sustainability agenda is developing every day and these services are needed. Rising landfill tax, tougher legislation and the negative perceptions of expanding landfills plus access to land for landfill use mean that people need a new avenue to deal with waste. Now Scottish Water Horizons is exploring an initiative to use the potent combination of food and garden waste together to produce even more energy. The waste is converted into heatgas, which in turn can be used to produce electricity to send to the National Grid. We are exploring uses for the surplus heat produced such as a heat network for local businesses and have carried out trials to produce bio methane for use as a sustainable vehicle fuel.

It is critical that waste food is not flushed to the sewer. The use of macerators to deal with waste which is then put down the public drains can cause other issues with flooding and blockage. This can impact on our costs and our customers and cause environmental pollution. Scottish Water is looking at a service that will take that waste and use it for the good of Scotland.

Scotland is working to be the Hydro Nation and we have a duty to help deliver a low-carbon economy and develop the value of water and with our assets and expertise, Scottish Water is well positioned to play its part now and into the future.

Richard Allan is managing director of Scottish Water Horizons.