Mr Stewart was speaking yesterday (June 11) in a debate on food waste convened by the Labour MP for Bristol East Kerry McCarthy. The MP had previously spearheaded an unsuccessful private members bill that would have required retailers and manufacturers to donate non-edible food to charities and food banks.
Yesterday’s debate also comes in the wake of the passing of laws in France requiring supermarkets to partner with charities to donate food approaching its best before date. The French law has sparked interest in the UK, with just under 180,000 people signing a petition for similar measures to be explored by the government.
In her speech yesterday, Ms McCarthy criticised the effect of the voluntary Courtauld commitment, which sets targets for retailers and hospitality businesses to reduce packaging and food waste. She accused the industry of setting a ‘very low’ target for improvements under phase three of the scheme.
She said: “The target was to reduce household food waste by 5% by 2015 and to reduce manufacturing and retail waste by just 3%. The first year’s results show little change against that minuscule target, although signatories have reported a doubling in the food provided for redistribution. Those targets simply are not ambitious enough to drive the reduction that is needed.”
Redistribution
The MP also claimed that government should favour the prevention or redistribution of food waste rather than disposal through anaerobic digestion or composting.
Responding to the comments, Mr Stewart acknowledged that there has always been a tendency to set ‘achievable’ targets, adding that ambition may be needed in future.
But, commenting on the likelihood of the introduction of any French-style laws forcing retailers to act to redistribute edible food waste in the UK the minister appeared to favour more localised measures to tackle the issue.
He said: “Much of what the Department is taking away from this debate is that the best examples are at local level. It is not a question of civil servants from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs or Ministers having all the bright ideas; we should be listening much more attentively to what is being generated by the NGO sector, community shops and individual constituencies, and learning from them.”
Composting
The under secretary also spoke out in favour of the composting industry, highlighting its ability to provide environmental benefits such as restoration of peatlands, as highlighted earlier in the debate by Margaret Ferrier, the SNP MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West.
He added: “It is absolutely true that traditionally, when we look at the hierarchy of waste in relation to food, we prefer to eat food; our next preference is to have animals eat it; and then we eventually consider how we might extract energy from it, for example through anaerobic digestion. However, her point that food put into composting can save endangered peatlands is a very important environmental argument, and a real reminder that we need to keep looking at issues really broadly.
“One of the dangers in a lot of discussions in this area is that we can miss potential environmental benefits by getting so tightly attached to a particular model or hierarchy that we fail to consider, for example, the relationship between composting and peatlands. I do not want to move to a world in which we encourage people to over-invest in composting at the expense of eating, but it is worth bearing in mind that composting has not only an anaerobic digestion energy benefit, but a benefit to endangered habitats.”
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