March 2, 2021 by Robyn White

ADBA calls for ‘urgent funding’ of food waste collections

The Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) has said the government needs to provide “urgent funding” for local authorities if they are to implement separate food waste collections by 2023.

ADBA chief executive, Charlotte Morton, says a lack of funding means councils can not put infrastructure in place

The comments follow an annual monitoring report published last week by the National Infrastructure Commission, which reiterated the government’s plans to make separate food waste collections mandatory, as stated in the Resources and Waste Management Strategy.

Responding to the report, ADBA said funding needs to be provided “without delay” to make this possible.

It added that as there are currently “no plans” for the government to financially support local authorities to implement the directive before 2023, councils could miss the deadline.

Landfill

Charlotte Morton, chief executive of ADBA, explained that separate food waste collections in England will prevent 2.3 million tonnes of household-produced food waste going to either landfill or sewer, however councils need funding in order to put these changes in place.

She explained: “Local authorities are in the process of putting their waste management contracts in place now for the years to come, and they need government funding now to be able to implement separate food waste collections by 2023.

“Lack of funding is preventing LAs from putting the infrastructure in place to collect this food waste, and being able to do so, as required by Government, by 2023. We cannot afford any delays if the UK is to meet its Net Zero targets by 2050 and hope this funding will feature in this week’s Budget announcement.”

Question

This comes as the recycling minister, Rebecca Pow, responded on 26 February to a question from the former

ADBA said while AD is the optimal form of treatment, councils need funding to transition

environment secretary Theresa Villiers, who asked when plans to implement the proposals mandating a consistent approach to collections, including food, would be introduced.

In response, Ms Pow said: “We will be seeking further views in an upcoming second consultation on recycling consistency, which will be published in spring 2021 and will include detail on transition timelines for local authorities. We want to implement recycling consistency as soon as is practically possible, taking into account factors including lead-in times for local authorities to procure vehicles and other capital goods and any existing contractual arrangements”.

Conference

At ADBA’s recent conference in February, Defra confirmed that second consultations of the Environment Bill will include a focus on “transition timeliness” to assist councils in the move to mandatory food waste collections (see letsrecycle story).

Where much concern from council representatives comes from managing existing contract commitments in making the change, Defra added it will seek “further views” on how to work with those with long-term waste disposal contracts, and help them to make the transition “as soon as possible”.

National Food Waste Conference

The fifth annual National Food Waste Conference, organised by letsrecycle.com, takes place online on Wednesday 3 March 2021. Join representatives from food waste processors, producers, waste management companies, local authorities and charities – to discuss the extent to which the sector has been impacted by the pandemic, incoming mandatory weekly food waste collections in 2023 and case studies exploring how we tackle avoidable food waste.