Homeowners in Oxford face the prospect of finding room for yet another recycling box, this time for food waste.

Almost every property in the city qualifies for six bins, boxes and bags, but Oxford City Council has revealed early plans to introduce a weekly food waste collection.

And with some households opting to buy extra recycling containers and boxes, it could mean some properties have as many as 10 receptacles to store waste in.

Oxfordshire County Council, the waste disposal authority, has gone out to tender to build a food waste composting plant - but it is unlikely to be built before 2009.

Chipping Norton-based company Agrivert is proposing to build a £5m composter between Yarnton and Cassington.

However, Town Hall chiefs said they wanted to eliminate the problem of rotting carcases, bones and problems of flies, maggots and vermin as soon as possible.

Environmental experts are now drawing up plans for a pilot scheme with the food waste collected taken to a processing plant outside the county.

City councillor Jean Fooks, executive member for a cleaner city, said: "Food waste is the thing people are most bothered about and it's a fairly high proportion of what is left over. It would mean another small container with it being collected weekly - but that has cost implications. The idea would be to mix green and food waste because that's what is needed to make compost."

New recycling arrangements were introduced in Oxford in November.

Most houses now have two green and two blue boxes for glass, paper and plastics, a green sack for garden waste and a green wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste.

Avid recyclers can buy extra bins and boxes.

In the space of a year the city's recycling rate has jumped from 19 per cent last year to 32 per cent as of March this year.

In real terms that equates to an average of 750 tonnes collected every month last year to more than 1,250 tonnes collected every month so far this year.

County council spokesman Jane Young said: "The processing of food waste requires a specialist facility.

"The county council is committed to providing this.

"A facility will be provided by April 2009 - this date has not changed."