Public supports separate food waste collections, new report reveals

Following these trials, some local authorities have already decided to roll out these collections on a permanent basis. Consumer surveys conducted by WRAP showed 78 per cent of residents were satisfied with the collection service they received and in around half of the areas where participation monitoring was conducted, 70% of households were taking part in the service. The collected food waste was either composted at in-vessel facilities or treated by anaerobic digestion.

The trials, conducted by 19 local authorities and supported by WRAP, provided weekly food waste collections to over 94,000 households in a range of urban and rural locations. Households were provided with a caddy for separating food waste in the kitchen, a supply of caddy liners and a container for storing food waste in prior to collection.  Across the trial areas the average quantity of food waste collected at the kerbside each week was between 1.1 and 2.2 kgs per household.  During the trials a total of 4,400 tonnes of food waste was diverted from landfill avoiding the emission of the equivalent of 2,000 tonnes of CO₂.

Analysis of the results shows that:

• The use of caddy liners, making the food collections clean and easy for residents, was an important factor in encouraging participation.
• The trials have begun to encourage changes in attitude towards food waste. A proportion of survey respondents stated that their awareness of the need to avoid food waste had increased as a result of the trial.
• Weekly food waste collections have been shown to be successful in areas where residual waste is collected either fortnightly or weekly although higher participation and yields were found with the former.
• Size of household, lifestyle and the communications strategies of different local authorities are other factors likely to affect the amount of food waste collected.
• Overall, trials in more affluent areas achieved higher yields of food waste compared to the trials in less affluent areas.  This may be the result of social, environmental and housing issues which local authorities will want to consider as they develop collection schemes.

Phillip Ward, Director for Local Government Services at WRAP said: “We throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food every year in the UK - £10 billion pounds worth- and most of that goes to landfill. Even those households that believe they aren’t producing much or any food waste are discarding on average nearly 3kg per week.

“The first priority is to try to reduce this level of waste. Through the Love Food Hate Waste campaign WRAP is working hard to raise awareness and provide practical suggestions to consumers on how they can reduce food wastage. However, at the same time, we must ensure that the food waste which is produced is diverted from landfill, so that we can avoid the production of methane and other global warming gases.

“We are therefore delighted by the results of these trials, which show that if consumers are given the right tools and are provided with a good service, they will participate in initiatives to cut waste being sent to landfill. We hope that separating their waste in this way will also encourage them to think about how they buy and manage their food in the home. WRAP will now be working with local authorities to share the knowledge gained from the trials and the successes achieved.  We are also pleased that several of the authorities involved in the trials have already taken decisions to roll out food waste collections to more households”.