The waste industry has developed a five-point action plan to boost recycling of food waste in England.
An estimated 10 million tonnes of post-farm gate food waste is thrown out across the UK every year, but only 1.8 million tonnes is currently recycled, according to waste body Wrap.
The action plan has been designed to help increase both the supply and quality of household and commercial waste available for recycling. Representatives from the food waste processing industry, local authorities, waste collectors and industry bodies, including Wrap, as well as the Environmental Services Association and the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management, developed it.
The plan aims to help operators of food waste processing plants secure feedstock. The number of dedicated food waste anaerobic digesters in the UK has risen from 52 in 2011 to 76 in 2015, and more are expected.
The plan should also enable food waste collectors to maximise the amount of food waste they can obtain so that collections are cost-effective.
Marcus Gover, chief executive of Wrap, said that preventation should remain the priority but that, after everything had been done to prevent or redistribute waste, the focus needed to shift to recycling.
‘There are significant volumes of food waste still ending up in the residual waste stream. This is a massive loss of resources. The action plan recognises the shared interests and common benefits to collecting and recycling more of the food waste we can’t prevent and avoid,’ he said.
The provision of domestic food waste collections across England is inconsistent, with less than half of all households currently receiving a service, the action plan states. The steering group that produced it identified various barriers to commercial food waste collections, including a lack of space in commercial premises to segregate food waste for separate collection and a lack of understanding of food waste recycling.
Under the plan, waste collectors would promote available resources and information to help commercial food waste producers understand the business benefits of recycling it and their obligations under duty of care legislation, which requires them to dispose of waste responsibly.
The five points of the action plan are:
- Developing the business case - understanding the ‘whole system costs’ of food waste recycling to inform the decisions and choices of those involved.
- Optimising food waste collections - helping collectors design and deliver services that are efficient and to maximise the amount of food waste collected for recycling.
- Communicating with householders and commercial food waste producers - helping them to understand how to recycle food waste and why.
- Improving quality of food waste as well as quantity to avoid contamination - communicating with collectors and processors on how to ensure quality feedstock.
- Using contractual mechanisms to incentivise food waste collectors to maximise the amount collected.
The steering group plans to review progress every six months and publish an annual performance report.
