Food waste from households is estimated to be 60% of total food waste in the UK. This is four times more than retail and manufacturing, or farming. While awareness is growing in households for the need to process food waste separately, one of the biggest obstacles is a lack of infrastructure.
Providing composting bins to households has had some impact, but it’s clear from government policies that they believe local authorities have a bigger role to play.
Unfortunately, even though government is implementing the policy, they won’t be footing the bill, at least not in its entirety. Unless the industry works together, opportunities will be lost and the food waste problem will keep on growing. Can local authorities afford to implement yet another collection service?
The challenge is that while some local authorities have infrastructure in place to support food waste collections happen, many are starting from scratch. With less than 2 years to implement, and concerns about funding and resources, what are the alternate solutions available?
Broader Collaboration
Where local authorities lack the resources, an option may be to collaborate with other local authorities and businesses to fund and create solutions. This has the advantage of broadening the pool of expertise to draw on and leveraging economies of scale.
It’s been achieved in recycling – take for example Sherbourne Recycling which is a collaboration between multiple stakeholders. With food waste, the many outputs that can be generated, broadens the number of stakeholders to collaborate with. Are there options available to combine both commercial and residential food waste collections?
Anaerobic digestion provides an opportunity to work with energy providers. Production of compost and fertilisers creates markets in the agricultural sector. Additionally, funding is being made available for commercialisation of ideas emanating from university research. Technology companies too, are creating models for tracking waste and measuring environment impacts including biodiversity regeneration.
All of these can be leveraged to find better solutions for managing food waste. Local authorities shouldn’t depend on government to provide the solutions or be the sole funding source for managing food waste. Not when there’s opportunity to generate independent and more effective solutions.
Pooling expertise for sustainable solutions
With waste processing solutions the primary focus is on environmental benefits. Too often projects with the best intentions fail because they are not financially viable. Relying on funding to make these projects work is not sustainable because at any stage that funding can dry up, as has often been the case.
A different approach is required. One that seeks to create solutions that are economically viable and can therefore become self-sustaining in the long run. There is a deep pool of expertise within the resource sector. Broadening the opportunities for innovation and collaboration may be local authorities best bet to find effective food waste solutions. What do you think are the best options for food waste management?
