The Liberal Democrats have warned that reducing Defra funding for the Waste & Resources Action Programme will hit efforts to boost home composting, as new research has revealed the full extent of household fruit and vegetable wastage.

New WRAP figures have revealed the amount of fruit thrown away untouched

Provisional figures published yesterday (April 8) as part of studies undertaken by WRAP about the nature, amount and source of food waste produced by UK households show that 5.4 million potatoes and 4.4 million apples are thrown away untouched every year.

The research also looks at consumer storage habits and the role that retailers and the food industry can play in reducing food waste, and discovered that retailers were giving little or no storage advice to consumers on fruit and vegetables sold loose.

Following the publication of the figures, the Liberal Democrats' environment spokesman Martin Horwood criticised the imminent cuts to WRAP's budget (see letsrecycle.com story) and their potential effect on both food waste reduction and home composting.

He said: "Local authorities must also improve collection of compost waste, and the government needs to support households and businesses who want to recycle food waste themselves," he said. "It's outrageous that the government is cutting the budget of WRAP by more than 25%."

"It is difficult to understand how we are expected to tackle food waste issues when the government is slashing the budget of the very organisation that is meant to be tackling it, " he added.

Budget

WRAP has already confirmed that home composting is one of the area's that will be affected by its reduced budget for the current financial year, with Defra providing the organisation with £43.22 million of funding, compared to the £59.3 million it received in 2006-07.

However, the organisation is yet to confirm the exact details of its amended business plan and the effect that it will have on specific programmes it currently operates.

Despite this, a spokeswoman for WRAP told letsrecycle.com that "due to the recent budget cuts we have had to make some decisions. The implication of this for the Home Composting Programme is that the subsidy to the programme will have to be reduced.

"This means that the prices we charge residents for bins and accessories had to be increased."

"WRAP has discussed arrangements with the local authority partners and some are helping to keep the cost down to their householders by providing a local subsidy," she added. "These subsidies vary and therefore there are differing prices for compost bins depending on the amount of local subsidy.

"A small number of partners are paying all the cost in order that they can provide via WRAP a free compost bin to their householders."

Batteries

There have also been suggestions that the body's new, slimmed-down business plan could see it drop its support for battery recycling schemes in the lead up to September's UK introduction of producer responsibility for battery recycling under the Batteries Directive.

WRAP has previously played a key role in the establishment of trials of kerbside collections of household batteries (see letsrecycle.com story), as well as supporting G&P Batteries 'batt-box' scheme for the collection of batteries from businesses (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, the spokeswoman was not able to reveal exact details of the role the organisation would play in battery recycling after the September 26 introduction of producer responsibility.

"The WRAP battery collections trials will continue to receive government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland until the end of September," she explained. "At which point the producers will be responsible for the collection and recycling of batteries.

"WRAP is not able to guarantee which collection trials will continue beyond September," she added.