 If you don't finish your tea I'm going to wrap it up and send it to africa. There are starving children who'd be very glad of that food." I can't be the only person who had this phrase hurled at them repeatedly during childhood. Thirty years on and the leftovers are not sent to africa, but will soon be sent to the local council's recycling plant to be turned into compost.  Details of the Scottish Government's Zero Waste Plan for 2011-14 have been published (www.zerowastescotland.org.uk). The bit we are interested in is the "GBP4 million Food Waste Programme to support collections of food waste from homes and businesses". a number of trials have already taken place, but these will soon become normal practice to meet the target of sending a maximum of 5 per cent waste to landfill by 2025. It's only a matter of time before every home has a slop bucket alongside their other recycling bins.  Compost awareness Week will soon be upon us (1-7 May, www.recyclenow.com/home_composting) and while it's of particular interest to gardeners, the relationship between waste reduction and compost will be relevant to all of us once food waste collections kick in. The case in favour of composting is overwhelming (full details of how to do it well are on the Recycle Now website). around a third of households are alr 