PRESS RELEASE: ADBA: New WRAP figures reinforce need for separate food waste collection

Chief Executive of the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) Charlotte Morton has called on DEFRA to show stronger leadership following the latest figures released by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) showing an increase in average household food waste between 2012 and 2015.

According to WRAP’s report, which provides estimates for total and avoidable household food waste in the UK for 2014 and 2015, the estimated amount of household food waste per person increased by 2.2% between 2012 and 2015, with the amount of avoidable food waste increasing by 2.8%. The estimated amount of household food waste in the UK for 2015 was 7.3 million tonnes, or 75.2 kg per person per year.

Ms Morton said:

“These figures show that efforts to date to reduce household food waste have had limited effect and not gone far enough. Not only is edible food being thrown away rather than eaten, but in many areas of England this wasted food isn’t even separately collected by local authorities, instead being sent to rot in landfill with disastrous consequences for carbon emissions.”

 

“We’re calling on DEFRA to finally properly enforce the waste hierarchy and to follow the examples of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland by rolling out long-overdue separate food waste collections in England. This would make householders and businesses more aware of the amount of food they are wasting, the most effective way of reducing the amount of food waste generated in the first place, reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill and incineration, and allow more food waste to be recycled through AD into valuable green gas and biofertiliser.”