Food waste thrown away.
But this is not a viable or ethical long- term solution – our landfill sites are bursting at the seams. Alongside capacity issues, research shows that the greenhouse gases released by food left to rot in landfill are even more damaging to the environment than CO2
. Furthermore, with every tonne of
waste bearing a landfill tax figure in excess of £103 per tonne, the cost of disposing of excess food is eye-wateringly expensive – money that could be better spent on resources, equipment, or staffing. When it comes to reducing avoidable
waste, there are so many best practice processes that care homes could and should be adopting. From creating up-to-date food inventories and using data to adjust portion sizes, to leveraging leftovers, ditching garnishes, and freezing surplus portions. Reducing avoidable food waste will help to cut purchase costs significantly, but there will always remain a percentage of unavoidable waste that simply cannot be eliminated. While often falling under the radar, this comprises some 30 per cent of total food waste.
Embracing sustainable waste management Care homes need a clever solution to manage the unavoidable fraction. While not the silver bullet solution, food waste recycling provides an efficient alternative. A simple process, whereby food waste
is degraded in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic digestion, or AD), food waste recycling captures the biogas released during natural degradation. This can either be combusted to generate renewable electricity through combined heat and power (CHP) engines, or upgraded to reflect the properties of natural gas and injected
This legislative move will prevent the release of countless tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions
directly into the national gas grid. Even the residual material, a liquid ‘digestate’, can be used as a biofertiliser to aid crop growth. Nothing is wasted. At ReFood, we operate three state-of-
the-art AD facilities in the UK, turning more than 480,000 tonnes of food waste into renewable energy and biofertiliser every year. Working with hundreds of organisations, including those operating across the care sector, we play a key role in diverting unavoidable waste away from landfill. Across our sites, we generate a huge volume of renewable energy every year – all
from unwanted waste previously binned by households and businesses.
While the widespread environmental benefits alone should be enough to pique the interest of any care home manager, new legislation will soon force waste management processes to be addressed regardless of whether preparations have been made in advance or not. The new law, which comes as part
of the government’s Simpler Recycling legislation, will require all food waste to be separated and collected for recycling, rather than being landfilled or incinerated. Additionally, maceration (a dated, water- intensive solution that grinds plate scrapings into fine particles and flushes it away as wastewater) will also be banned. Instead, from this month, commercial
food waste must be disposed of in one of two ways: through anaerobic digestion (AD) or via composting. Kitchen staff will need to segregate food waste from other recycling streams and general waste, working with a proven supplier to prevent valuable waste from being landfilled.
From an environmental perspective, this legislative move will prevent the release of countless tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, while also relieving pressure on the UK’s landfill capacity. The only important consideration that care home managers need to make, therefore, is which supplier to work with. It is important that you do your research thoroughly to ensure that whoever you choose understands your care facility, your requirements, your pressures, and can deliver the bespoke service that you require. While a robust, reliable, proven
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www.thecarehomeenvironment.com March 2025
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