National food reclamation charity FoodCycle has called for food redistribution to poorer communities to be prioritised ahead of sending food waste to anaerobic digestion facilities.
The charity spoke out over what it sees as the dangers of overreliance on anaerobic digestion (AD) and told letsrecycle.com that even though AD is preferable to the use of landfill sites, it should still be viewed as a last resort.
The charitys comments follows the publishing of a report last week by the Liberal think-tank CentreForum, which proclaimed the benefits of AD and urged the government to recognise ADs potential as a treatment solution for organic waste in the coming years.
In a statement issued on Friday(July 6 2012), FoodCycle asserted that AD should be viewed as an option to be avoided unless strictly necessary: Anaerobic digestion is a better way of dealing with food waste than sending it to landfill but it should still be a last resort. We should be doing all we can to avoid waste in the first place.
The statement continued: We must instead prioritise the redistribution of edible food. While AD has its definite benefits, there is a danger that the focus on
The comments from FoodCycle come also in the wake of last Tuesdays meeting (July 3 2012) when Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman chaired a roundtable attended by representatives from major retailers including Tesco, Sainsburys and the Co-op and the charities Foodcycle and Fareshare to facilitate discussions about the future of food distribution in the UK.
Following the meeting, Mrs Spelman praised the efforts of the charities, saying: Preventing food waste protects the environment, helps communities and makes good business sense.
Both FoodCycle – and the charity Fareshare which also operates in the sector – work primarily to reclaim edible foodstuffs from supermarkets which are still in-date and using these items to provide healthy meals for people affected by food poverty, of which there are currently in excess of 4 million across the UK according to findings by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
FoodCycle set out its vision on their website, saying: The charitable association BAPEN estimates that malnutrition in the UK costs the NHS 13 billion pounds every year. We empower local communities to set up groups of volunteers to collect surplus produce locally and prepare nutritious meals in unused professional kitchen spaces. These meals are then served to those in need in the community.
Last week Defra published evidence of governmental progress in promoting AD since the launch of Anaerobic Digestion Strategy and Action Plan in June 2011.
The findings of the report confirmed that the government had doubled AD capacity in the UK in the past year, with the number of AD plants currently operating in the UK increasing by one third from 54 in 2011 to 78.
AD process
Anaerobic digestion is now widely used as a source of renewable energy. The facilities function by breaking down biodegradable organic material using microorganisms in the absence of oxygen. These processes produce a biogas, consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and traces of other gases.
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