As a result, it found that there was “hierarchy” of food recycling, with fruit and peelings at the top end of the scale, followed by cooked non-meaty produce and meat at the bottom.
The research involved 4,431 interviews, focus group work and data analysis in six case study areas – Bexley, Cambridge, Fenland, Hackney, Taunton Deane and Weymouth & Portland – over more than a year and was commissioned for Defra's Waste and Resources Evidence Programme.
The findings were discussed at a Defra meeting on Household food waste: Maximising participation in collection in London ahead of the publication of a final report in April.
Brook Lyndhurst director Jayne Cox said: “There is a clear hierarchy of food recycling… communications need to focus on getting people to deal with meat and muck and getting people to break separate fear and facts.”
Senior researcher Sara Giorgi added that while many householders did not need more information on how to participate in collections, communications should “target missing food – meat and mush.”
Other findings in the Brook Lyndhurst-lead research includes that participation was highest where food waste was collected weekly and residual waste fortnightly.
Food waste capture also appeared to be higher in food-only collection areas than in areas where food waste was mixed with garden waste.
Participation tended to be lower amongst young people, students and unemployed people, very small or very large households, some minority ethnic households and those living in conversion flats and private rented property.
The research also unveiled some evidence that some materials may be diverted from home composting into food waste collections, but the two areas in the study with the highest home composting rates also had the highest participation in the food waste collection.
As a result, Ms Giorgi suggested that councils combine their communications about home composting and food – to ensure that material which could be composted at home was.
She said: “Join up food recycling and home composting communications – food recycling is not instead of it, it takes things you can't compost.”
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