Biowaste - garden and food waste.
The UK produces tonnes of food waste and garden waste each year. Most of this goes to landfill, where it then degrades and produces methane, which is a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. Recycling more food and garden waste reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the UK and is a key plank in the government strategy on waste. It also helps the UK meet the terms of the EU Landfill Directive.
The key reports are:
- Understanding Food Waste - Research Summary (100 kb)
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Key findings of our recent research on the nature, scale and causes of household food waste. - Sustainable ways of dealing with household food and garden waste in the UK - Summary (139 kb) This report provides a summary of the major findings from the studies on Dealing with Food Waste in the UK and Managing Biowastes from Households in the UK. It indicates the conclusions WRAP draws from the research.
- Dealing with Food Waste in the UK - Final (792 kb) This report prepared for WRAP by Eunomia, shows that there can be real cost and environmental gains from collecting garden and food waste separately from each other. This enables processing costs to be minimized and can increase the amount of food collected. In terms of environmental impact, anaerobic digestion of food waste in particular performs best. There is clear evidence that to achieve the lowest financial and environmental costs, decision makers need to take a whole system approach, which considers options for treatment together with those for collection.
- Managing Biowastes from Households in the UK: Applying Life-cycle Thinking in the Framework of Cost-benefit Analysis, Final Report, May 2007 (1175 kb) with Appendices (971 kb) . The second report, with appendices, provides further details on the cost-benefit analysis for dealing with food and garden waste. It is the first major study of its kind in the UK and shows how cost-benefit analysis can help inform decision making.
- Carbon Balances and Energy Impacts of the Management of UK Waste Streams (WR0602) is a report published by Defra describes a macro-level investigation of the source and scale of energy and greenhouse gas benefits and impacts associated with the management of waste streams arising in the UK.
