Speaking at a session on food waste at the ‘Resourcing the Future’ conference in London yesterday (15 June), Ian Pickles, local authority manager at Biogen UK, emphasized the need for improving existing food waste collection services.
Mr Pickles also expressed his desire to see collaboration between processors and collectors, as well as moving towards a system of shared costs and benefits across the food waste supply chain.
“Food waste is a hot topic at the moment in the industry,” he said. “Of course we will be introducing new services, but shouldn’t we also be looking into improving existing services?”
And, in his warning on communications budgets, Mr Pickles drew on a case study from Peterborough city council, which introduced separate food waste collections in 2012. Mr Pickles claimed that once austerity measures hit household communications initiatives, recycling levels dropped drastically.
“Budgets within council departments are under extreme pressure, and usually the communications services are the first to go,” he said.
However, the lack of communication to residents has proven to result in dwindling recycling rates, which means higher prices for authorities to send waste to landfill, according to Mr Pickles.
Solutions
Proposed solutions included proving residents with free caddy liners, supplying information on the benefits of recycling and putting stickers on waste bins to improve recycling rates. But the cost of these initiatives can be an obstacle, Mr Pickles said.
He said: “Yes, there is a lot of focus on introducing new services, but there is a good opportunity for collectors and processors to work together, and if we can share the cost we can all benefit from the results.
“That’s why we say [at Biogen]: if you collect your food waste, we’ll lower your gate fee.”
Asked by the audience whether a decrease in food waste due to more effective recycling would negatively affect the AD industry, Mr Pickles said the encouragement of recycling has priority, as the food waste that is currently still going to landfill could be redirected to AD plants.
“From Biogen’s point of view, AD is a solution to unavoidable food waste,” he said. “I’m not worried at all about reductions in household food waste.
“We want to see recycling services provided to residents.”
Waste hierarchy
Other speakers during the session included Mike Falconer-Hall, organics programme manager at WRAP, Mark Varney, director of food at the redistribution charity Fareshare, Harriet Parke, consultant at Eunomia, and Robin Baird, waste strategy coordinator at Falkirk Council.
Mrs Parke, reiterated the financial and environmental benefit of separate food collection, referring to a recent study by the REA, which was compiled by Eunomia (see letsrecycle.com story).
She pointed to issues including the persistence of volume-based pricing over weight and the inability of one actor to change the market as reasons why separate collections hasn’t been more widely adopted in England.
There appeared to be a consensus among panellists that the waste hierarchy needs more initiative from above, in the form of government guidance. Mark Varney, director of food at Fareshare, said: “We need more leadership from Defra to ensure that food waste is reduced.”
Matt Hindle, head of policy at ADBA, said: “A key constraint on the market and future development is the lack of consistency. Fundamentally, we’re not going to see that change without some action, some vision, some coordination, by Westminster.”
The Resourcing the Future conference was a two-day event hosted by CIWM, ESA and the Resource Association at the Royal College of Surgeons in central London.
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