According to The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), total food waste in the UK is at around 10.7 million tonnes, with household food waste making up the vast majority of this (around 60% by weight). Farms are estimated to come in as the second largest contributor at around 15%, but it is difficult to quantify consistently, given uncertainty over annual yields, as well as variance in the timings of harvest and other natural factors. In a recent announcement, the Government has advised that they will be providing a £15 million grant to help farms specifically to redistribute their surplus produce to charities, reducing waste and helping the 8.4m people living in food poverty in the UK. It is news which is extremely welcome across sectors and will no doubt drive both social and environmental improvements in relation to this important issue. However, as always, the allocated funding will need to be used extremely carefully if it is to be maximised and whilst the funding level is material, the scale of the problem is undoubtedly greater.
What strikes us the most is that the food waste targeted for this initiatives appears to include waste already being repurposed as animal feed. Whilst the redistribution of safe, edible food to those in need is undoubtedly the preferential option – using food waste as a resource, either for animal feed or clean energy production via anaerobic digestion, remains an important and beneficial option.
We would therefore urge that initiatives to tackle food waste are targeted to focus on not just all waste produced by farms or other sources, but the waste specifically otherwise going to landfill. Adopting this approach would, in our view, be the most impactful way of using critical financial resources.
How can we help?
Regardless of how food waste is repurposed, the recent festive period, the start of a new year and recent government announcements should serve as a timely reminder for us all that food waste remains a big and complex challenge. If you are seeking solutions for utilising food waste as a resource, please get in touch.