Improving food waste recycling rates
In his final column, Cromwell Polythene Managing Director, James Lee, details ways to increase food waste recycling.
You don’t need to look too far to read a headline about our food waste crisis, and the need to improve recycling rates. The UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021, developed in collaboration with WRAP, estimates that, globally, around 931m tonnes of food waste were generated in 2019, 61% of which came from households, 26% from food service, and 13% from retail.
Clearly the greatest level of effort should be made to reduce the level of surplus food wasted in the first place. However, when food is thrown away, it can be collected, effectively handled, and disposed of through composting and anaerobic digestion (AD) – yet so much still ends up in landfill where it decomposes and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
In fact, the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) estimates that processing food waste at AD plants could save local authorities up to £1.8m annually, instead of sending it to landfill or for incineration.
Consistency in collection
There's disparity in food waste recycling rates across the UK thanks to inconsistency in collection methods. As part of its Resources and Waste Strategy for England, Defra has set out its proposals for all local authorities in England to collect the same core set of dry recyclables and to provide separate weekly food waste collections from households by 2023. The strategy also outlines Defra’s aim of working towards eliminating food waste to landfill by 2030.
It includes proposals for businesses which produce municipal waste to segregate dry recyclable materials from residual waste so that these can be collected for recycling. Within the proposals are recommendations that businesses separate their food waste for collection and recycling or composting.
All Welsh councils already offer separate food waste collections to help consumers recycle more. Scotland has also made a significant investment in household food waste collections in recent years. According to data from Zero Waste Scotland, over 1.5m households (as of September 2015) have access to a collection. It has also taken steps on the business side, where regulation is in place that requires non-rural businesses producing more than 5kg of food waste per week to segregate the material separately for collection (under 2016 updates to the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012).
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(
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/resources-and-waste-strategy-for-england (
https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/adba-says-ad-could-save-councils-up-to-1-8m/) (
https://www.unep.org/resources/report/unep-food-waste-index-report-2021)
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https://www.cromwellpolythene.co.uk/compostable/) (
https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/recycling-including-food-waste/) (
https://walesrecycles.org.uk/what-to-do-with/food-waste-1
Effective segregation
Recycling and re-use of materials starts with segregation of the different waste streams on site, such as paper, glass, plastic, and food waste, to avoid contamination. Unfortunately, items can often end up in the incorrect bin. The value of paper, for example, is significantly reduced if it’s contaminated with wet wastes such as food, and may even render it unrecyclable.
During the summer it’s particularly important to manage waste effectively as rising temperatures will heat your waste, allowing bacteria to grow faster, producing profound odours from the bins.
Cleaners, whether in-house or contractors, can help by ensuring there are enough recycling bins, that they are correctly positioned, and that they are clearly marked. They can also work in partnership with their clients to support recycling initiatives.
How can we help?
We supply a range of compostable sacks and caddy liners that support food and organic waste management strategies. Manufactured from Ecopond biodegradable plastic, using starch and lactide-based derivatives of plant sources, these products are fully compliant with the European composting standard (EN13432), which requires more than 90% of the plastic mass to convert into biomass, CO2, and water, with no harmful residue. Compostable caddy liners can help remove public barriers to recycling food waste.
www.cromwellpolythene.co.uk twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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