Managing household food waste

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Managing household food waste

• Linda Crichton
• WRAP ROTATE
• 3 April 2009

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Food Waste Some Facts

• 6.7mt /yr of household food waste
• 19 by weight of household waste critical to
  LATS
• Equivalent to a third of food bought is wasted
• At least 50 could have been eaten
• With a retail value of 10bn

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How Concerned Are We About Food Waste?
Why? Its a waste of my money 68 Its a waste of
good food 45 Its makes me feel guilty 36 Its
bad for the environment 20 I cant afford to
throw away good food 19 Why not? I dont throw
much away 44 Its not a problem 28 I cant help
it 20 Rather that than risk food poisoning
19 Lifes too short 15
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WRAPs food waste strategy
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Prevention reducing food waste
Direct to consumers
Local Authorities
Via strategic partners
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Local Authority Support
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Home composting

• Home composting - cost effective and
  environmentally beneficial option
• Promote home composting of garden appropriate
  food waste (raw fruit and vegetables, peelings,
  etc)
• WRAP Home Composting Programme soldnearly 2M
  bins since 2004
• Support programme essential

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Food waste collections current practice

• 54 councils collect combined food garden waste
• Generally collected from 240l wheeled bins
• Cannot charge for mixed garden waste collections
• 44 collect fortnightly 10 collect weekly
• Collected using RCVs
• Difficult to monitor how much is being collected
• 55 councils operate dedicated food waste services
  (all weekly)
• Generally collected from kerbside bins/buckets
  c.20l
• 30 also provide kitchen caddies c.10l
• Collected using range of vehicles 7.5t gvw
• Trials programme 19 partners

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Mixed garden food collections

• Typically lower captures of food waste
• High captures of garden waste
• Residents disposing of food waste in the residual
  bin in the intervening week?
• Less willing to put meat/fish in garden bin?
• Suitability of feedstock for treatment
• Higher treatment costs for garden waste

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Composition of mixed material
food card garden contamination
Fortnightly caddy AWC refuse
Fortnightly caddy AWC refuse
Fortnightly AWC refuse
Weekly AWC refuse
Fortnightly caddy weekly refuse
Weekly caddy weekly refuse
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Food only collections

• Generally collected in kerbside buckets c.20-25l
• Many councils also provide kitchen caddies c.7l
  
• Achieves the highest capture rates if collected
  weekly
• Benefits especially when refuse frequency is lower

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Food waste composition
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Comparing collection options Kg
food/participating hh/year
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Food waste management

• Encourage people to avoid wasting food -
  PREVENTION
• Promote home composting of garden appropriate
  food waste - lowest financial and environmental
  cost
• Avoid mixing the collection of food waste with
  garden waste
• Consider separate collection of food wastes
  weekly
• Provide kitchen caddies and kerbside containers
  to make the separation of food waste easier for
  residents and to encourage them to take part in
  the service
• Match the method of collection to the treatment
  system - AD and in-vessel composting are both
  viable with AD bringing the higher environmental
  benefits