"European and UK legislation to divert municipal biodegradable waste from landfill rightly imposes tough targets. Food waste recycling has an important role to play in helping Britain meet its international obligations"
Joan Ruddock, Environment Minister
London: Research has found that two thirds of households recycle their food waste when councils provide a weekly collection along with fortnightly residual waste collection, says Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs).
The research report by Brook Lyndhurst, was discussed at a conference for local authorities yesterday (Thurs) and will be published later this spring. It covers household behaviour, motivations and highlights the real scope for environmental and economic benefits of separate weekly food waste collection services for householders.
Brook Lyndhurst worked with the Resource Recovery Forum and Waste Watch, on the project 'Enhancing participation in kitchen waste collection schemes'.
Factors controlling behaviour appear to be complex and include the type of collection scheme in operation, householder age and socio-demographic profile and local authority communications strategy.
The research was funded by Defra's Waste & Resources Evidence Programme (WREP) - not to be confused with WRAP ( Waste and Resources Action Programme).
Some key findings
Research found widespread support for separate food waste collection with 78% agreeing that the environmental benefits are important to them.
Two out of three households use their food collection regularly, though 23% abstained from food recycling.
The study found that dedicated food-only systems capture more food waste than food waste mixed with garden waste. (Editor - there is also the question of the high treatment cost for garden waste in such a mixed system compared to alternate windrow systems. Even more so when compared to home composting which appears to be the best environmental option for such wastes.)
Overall, weekly food combined with fortnightly residual waste collection generates the highest kilogramme amount of food recovery per household, according to the authors.
Field trials by WCAs
Defra is also funding work by WRAP to trial household food waste collection systems. Nineteen waste collection authorities (WCAs) are conducting weekly food waste collection trials, to develop good practice guidance in the design and operation of food waste collection schemes.
The WRAP studies were issued in 2007 and found that UK households discard 6.7 million tonnes of food waste each year which represents around 19 per cent of municipal waste. The interpretation was that, amazingly, householders are throwing away one third of the food purchased, based on food sales figures of 16.5 kg per household per week and 5.2 kg\hh\wk discarded
Not only that but most of this food waste could have been consumed through better management by correct storage, use by dates and by only cooking the quantity required (fairly obvious really but clearly not the top of householders priorities currently).
A useful tool is WRAP's Love Food Hate Waste website which is designed to reduce this waste.
The trials follow last year's research whose findings appear to be supported by many of those coming out of the current study.
The earlier study also found that weekly collections of food waste only, helped to minimise the processing costs, as the results show that cost burdens on local authorities can be higher when food waste is simply bulked in with existing garden waste schemes.
The field trials by WCAs has involved the provision of containers and liners, design and issue of communication materials to householders, and trying out different collection vehicles and crewing levels. Extensive monitoring of the trials include participation monitoring, capture rate analysis and customer feedback.
Defra says that early results are encouraging and suggest that the schemes have been well received and are acceptable to householders.
Initial diversion estimates indicate that around 3kg of food waste per week is being collected from households taking part. Participation rates so far are in the range 50 per cent to 80 per cent.
The final report on the trials is expected in early June, according to Defra.
Brook Lyndhurst's research
Brook Lyndhurst's study covered 4,431 households in six authority areas - Bexley, Cambridge, Fenland, Hackney, Taunton and Weymouth.
The study areas included different food waste collections as well as involving extensive discussion groups with users and non-users of the food waste collections, according to the Department.
“The research investigated the behavioural determinants of participation and non-participation, whether and how these factors differ between socio-demographic groups and in different housing situations, and the effects of scheme design (e.g. weekly versus alternate weekly collections and communications)”, says Defra.
Environment Minister, Joan Ruddock, said:
"Food wastage is an increasingly important issue, on environmental, sustainability, climate change and equity grounds. There is also the real loss to the economy of so much potential value.
"This research shows that much more can be done cost effectively to prevent food wastage and to recover value from what is thrown away. Food waste recycling was targeted by our Waste Strategy, and current studies show how local authorities can make real advances.