GIANT bananas stormed Blenheim Palace this week in a bid to show how food recycling can have huge benefits, with banana waste alone able to power three primary schools.

Pupils from North Kidlington Primary School donned the costumes and roamed the palace grounds on Tuesday to learn how UK households produce 7.3 million tonnes of food waste every year, including 240,000 tonnes of banana skins.

The yellow takeover was part of campaign Recycle Now, which said it takes 289,400 banana peels - the equivalent to one from every household in Oxfordshire - to produce enough energy to power three schools for one day.

Linda Crichton, from Recycle Now, said: “Although many people in Oxfordshire are recycling their food waste, there’s still more we can do.

“When we ask people why they don’t recycle their food waste, they tell us it’s because they don’t think they produce enough to bother.

“In fact - we all create a certain amount of food waste which cannot be eaten, no matter how conscientious we are in trying not to waste food.

“Unavoidable waste, like tea bags, egg shells, potato peels and of course, banana skins are not edible but can all be recycled.

“This is why we decided to draw people’s attention to these types of waste - to remind everyone, we can all recycle food waste and give it a new lease of life as electricity and heat.”

Blenheim Palace sends all of its food waste for anaerobic digestion, and almost 109 tonnes of food waste was recycled and transformed into energy in 2015.

Across the county, nearly 15,000 tonnes of food waste was sent to anaerobic digestion in 2015/16.

All five district councils offer food waste collection for recycling on an either weekly or fortnightly basis.