Plans For A Food Waste-Free Future

Vision 2020: UK Roadmap to Zero Food Waste to Landfill was written by ReFood, a charitable organisation which promotes sustainable businesses.

The plan has been set in place in order to prevent greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere, return over 1.3 million tonnes of valuable nutrients to the soil, generate over 1 terrawatt-hour of electricity a year, and ultimately save the UK economy over £17 billion a year.

To help the UK in this aim, ReFood has recommended that a timetable for a phased introduction is put into place, allowing time for industry to finance and process a new infrastructure. Compulsory separate collections of food waste from homes and business will be introduced, in order to provide value in the form of energy, heat and nutrients for agriculture. Food waste education will take place in schools, colleges and professional training programmes in support of WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste initiative. There will be a new focus on collaboration between the supply chain and key stakeholders.

Philip Simpson, commercial director of ReFood said, “Our message is clear; food waste is a valuable resource that should never end up in landfill sites. Everyone from the food producer, through to the retailer, the restaurant and the householder can play their part in ensuring that we take full advantage of its considerable potential by ensuring we re-use, recycle and recover every nutrient and kilowatt of energy it has to offer. As the biggest contaminant in the waste stream, food waste consigns millions of tonnes and billions of pounds of valuable resources to landfill or incineration each year. Failure to take a cohesive approach to food waste could result in solutions that will consign valuable resources to incineration or landfill, potentially cause significant environmental damage and represent a lost opportunity to develop a more integrated infrastructure in the UK to reprocess and recycle all waste. We would like to see the government and industry take a more consistent and holistic approach to waste in the UK - one that maximises its potential as a resource.”

Sue Riddlestone, OBE, chief executive and co-founder of BioRegional added: “Achieving zero food waste to landfill within the next seven years is a big challenge and we will need the support and actions of individuals, businesses and the government if this vision is to be realised. However, the case for change is compelling. We will save billions of pounds. We will prevent millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases from entering our atmosphere. And crucially, we will ensure that food is treated as a precious resource.”

Find out more at www.vision2020.info