Families are being urged to serve up a special gift to the planet this Christmas by avoiding food waste.

The plea has been issued jointly by Zero Waste Scotland and Scottish Water amid estimates that around eight out of every 10 households in the local area will end up with leftover food from Christmas Day.

Iain Gulland, chief executive at Zero Waste Scotland, said the amount of food wasted is alarming but can be avoided if residents recycle responsibly.

He is urging people to build on the momentum gained at the recent Cop26 climate change conference in nearby Glasgow by playing their part in cutting carbon emissions from food waste this Christmas.

“Following COP26, we’re thrilled to see an even bigger surge of people who want to be more conscientious and food waste reduction is a great, and easy, place to start," said Mr Gulland.

“It really is simple – by tackling the issue of overconsumption, only buying what you need this festive season and recycling what you can’t use, you’ll limit carbon emissions and help usher in a more sustainable future for Scotland and the world.”

Around one million tonnes of food – equivalent to some 67 million meals – are thrown away in Scotland each year.

Colin Lindsay, operations manager at Scottish Water Horizons, which is the commercial subsidiary of Scottish Water, said: “The tendency at this time of year is to overdo everything.

“When you consider the environmental cost of wasted food, it more than doubles when emissions from growing, processing and cooking it are also taken into account.

“With a serving of Christmas dinner producing the same amount of carbon as boiling a kettle 100 times, you can imagine how much can be saved if we buy only what we need.”