OPINION: Whilst there’s little doubt extending residential food waste is a good thing, there is of course much conversation right now around what practically needs to be done to get there. Amongst the conversation is concern around the timeframes to mobilise, the additional logistical pressures in both dense urban and remote rural areas, and the pressure on supply chains as councils all tender for new fleets at a similar time.
Similarly, central government have shown recognition for the practical challenges by providing local authorities with £295 million in funding specifically for containers and specialist collection vehicles.
However, there is a lack of narrative around the processing of the waste once collected. So, what should local authorities and waste management companies be talking about as they mobilise themselves for 2026?
Contamination
The first thing to prepare for is the extent of contamination within the waste collected.
In an ideal world, food waste caddies would only ever include organic waste ready for onward processing – in particular, anaerobic digestion. However, the reality is far from this. Car batteries, clothing, gym equipment and even hand tools are all common finds lurking in food waste bins. And that’s before we even get to unremoved food packaging.
These items need separating from the organic waste before the food can go on to create gas or electricity, and it is vital that councils, alongside their waste management companies, ensure that the processing line is set up to separate packaging and strong enough to cope with the foreign items found on a regular basis.
Purity
If you’re not already thinking about the purity of your recovered waste, you should be.
From an environmental perspective, greater impurity allows harmful microplastics into our food chain as well as creating avoidable landfill. But we are also talking about taxpayers’ money, which local government have a duty to spend wisely. A lack of impurity leads to avoidable expense (landfill) as well as lower gas yields from anaerobic digestion and poorer value of your organic soup.
This must be considered when designing and building your processing line.
Water requirements
Ease of use, maintenance and upfront costs never fail to be forefront of mind. However, local authority procurement should put equal emphasis on the value for money, running costs and in particular water consumption.
Depackaging machines may or may not require water to operate, and when water is required, the amount can vary drastically, typically up to around 10m3/hour of water. Aside from the associated consumption costs, does your site have this amount of water available? And if adding it to the process, how will you deal with it later on?
Lower water content results in a higher concentration of organic material, which can lead to more efficient biogas production as well as a better yield and reducing the volume of water upfront means a lower volume of effluent that needs to be treated post-digestion – both reducing costs and complexity.
With less water, comes less digestate and therefore reduced transportation and associated costs.
When it comes to waste food management, processing is as important as logistics
Organic waste can be difficult to handle with many hidden considerations. Local authorities collecting and processing food waste for the first time need to be asking these questions of their waste management companies, and similarly the waste management companies of their suppliers.
With these considerations at the forefront, we can together create the best outcome from this important change in legislation.
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