Food manufacturers urged to separate waste at source (22.07.08)
Food and drink manufacturers recycled or recovered 82% of the waste produced at their sites in 2006, a Defra-funded report has revealed.
However, the study has called for the sector to segregate more waste at source to further reduce the amount it sends to landfill.
We hope that the survey results will send a message to the waste industry to invest more in alternative disposal routes, such as waste to energy, or anaerobic digestion and composting.
The report, which was jointly published by the Defra and the food and drink sector's trade association, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), indicated that, of 835,000 tonnes of food and packaging waste produced at 236 sites run by FDF members, only 138,000 tonnes was sent to landfill.
And, it also discovered that utilising by-products produced during the processing of raw materials allowed the sector to prevent 511,921 tonnes of waste from being created, with the majority being used as animal feed.
Praising the work of the FDF's members, its director of sustainability and competitiveness, Callton Young, said: "The results of this survey demonstrate the level of ongoing commitment by FDF members to making a significant contribution to improving the environment, by targeting areas where they can make the biggest difference.
"Our members' initiatives are preventing significant amounts of waste at their sites and it is fantastic that the vast majority of waste that does arise is already treated in an environmentally friendly way," he added.
Segregation
However, the study also discovered that, while mixed food and packaging waste comprised just 134,819 tonnes of the total waste produced by the sector, 109,686 tonnes of that was sent to landfill.
This compared poorly with unmixed food waste, 604,883 tonnes of the total, of which only 17,569 tonnes was sent to landfill, with the majority bring used in land-spreading, recycled or sent for thermal treatment or anaerobic digestion.
And, similarly with unmixed packaging waste, only 10,511 tonnes of a total 94,900 tonnes was sent to landfill, with the majority being either recycled or recovered.
As a result, the report's authors, consultants Oakdene Hollins, called for more to be done to separate food and packaging waste, stating that the study "suggests that a future priority area should be segregation of such waste, preferably at source, in order to save valuable resources."
"It is also important to ensure awareness of opportunities to recover mixed waste via anaerobic digestion, advanced composting facilities or thermal treatment, and to encourage treatment providers to offer facilities in the areas with the greatest potential feedstock," they added.
Anaerobic Digestion
Reacting to the findings, Mr Young said: "We hope that the survey results will send a message to the waste industry to invest more in anaerobic digestion and composting capacity in line with FDF's ambition to send zero food and packaging waste to landfill from 2015."
That zero waste goal is one of five key commitments made by the FDF in October 2007, among which are working with the Waste and Resources Action Programme to reduce the amount of food packaging used and offer householders advice on recycling and reuse of packaging.
The research was welcomed by environment minister, Phil Woolas, who claimed that they would add weight to the Government's support for anaerobic digestion, which stepped up a notch last week with the unveiling of the next stage of its £10 million AD demonstrator project .
"This is very useful information from FDF," he said. "It will help the waste industry and local planners to understand where it's worthwhile to provide facilities like anaerobic digestion, which is the key technology for material such as food waste.
"I chaired a meeting only this week with around fifty senior industry and NGO executives who have pledged to work with Government on ways to increase the use of anaerobic digestion. Solid facts and figures like these will be a vital way of taking that aim forward," he added.
Areas
The report took a county-by-county approach to examining the food and packaging waste produced by the food and drink sector, and discovered that Shropshire, Yorkshire and the South-West counties produced the largest quantities of waste, with Surrey producing the least.
In terms of waste sent to landfill, only three of the 37 areas it reported on landfilled more than 10,000 tonnes - Scotland, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire, though based on average landfill per site Scotland performed significantly better than its nearest rivals, with each site sending 506 tonnes compared to their 1,644 tonnes and 1,063 respectively.
While mixed waste represented over 90% of the waste sent to landfill in 17 of the areas surveyed, packaging was the predominant waste stream in Suffolk and the West Midlands, and unmixed food waste in Staffordshire, Wiltshire and Northamptonshire.
The report also discovered that there were notable differences in the amount of waste sent to landfill between neighbouring counties, suggesting that "This may be due to the heterogeneity of the food industry, but may also represent an opportunity for creating better prevention, recycling and recovery opportunities."
Recycling
In relation to recycling and recovery methods, the vast majority (63,464 tonnes out of a 66,239 tonne total) of waste processed by anaerobic digestion took place in Staffordshire, while for landspreading - the most popular recovery route after recycling - the largest amount (79,470 tonnes out of a 218,325 tonne total) was in Shropshire.
Thermal treatment was a particularly popular option in the South-West counties, where 83,363 tonnes of the 94,271 tonnes of the sector's waste processed using that method took place, though in total only four of the 37 areas used the technology at all.
Composting represented a more widespread choice, with 13 areas using it, but Suffolk and Herefordshire accounted for nearly half of 40,326 tonnes reported.
And, despite its urban demographic, Greater Manchester recorded the largest use of by-products, preventing waste being produced in the first place, leading the report to conclude that "use of by-product as animal feed does not appear to be directly related to locality of livestock farms".