LAWR

ANAEROBIC DIGESTION Unlocking valuable resources for AD Defra announced at ADBA's conference last year that it will not be expecting to design or deliver new policy initiatives around food waste. In light of this, what advice can experts give to help councils that wish to implement separate food waste collections on a budget? Liz Gyekye explores further. T he anaerobic digestion industry has long argued for local authorities to adopt separate food waste collections to support the continuing growth of the AD market. They argue that it helps to capture more food waste, reduces refuse disposal, optimises food waste's value for energy and avoids contamination of other forms of recycling. It is important to set the scene to find out what is happening in the sector at the moment before seeking advice from experts. The UK continues to throw away 15m tonnes of food waste per year. Around 7.2mt is from households, 3.2mt from food manufacturing, 0.6mt from hospitality, 0.4mt from retail and 0.1mt from schools. Of the 7.2mt of waste thrown away by households, 4.6mt is collected by local authorities, 4.3mt is collected in residual waste and 0.3t is collected as recycling. Scotland and Wales are already racing ahead with food waste collection initiatives. Around only a quarter of England's councils separate food waste and half have no food waste collection facilities at all. In contrast, 96% of householders in Wales have got access to food waste collections, 60% in Northern Ireland and 40% in Scotland. The latter figure is expected to be 70% this time next year, according to figures from WRAP. Research by WRAP acknowledges 22 Local Authority Waste & Recycling January 2014 that separate food waste collections typically save councils money in the long run and "performance is better from weekly separate collections" but it can be difficult to find upfront investment to implement these schemes. WRAP says that there are many factors affecting costs including, whether councils run a separate fleet or a co-collection service, whether the collection service is near the location of the The UK continues "throw away 15m to tonnes of food waste per year " treatment plant, loading rates and containers. With half of WRAP funding from Defra being spent on food and drink waste prevention, WRAP may be the first port of call for councils seeking advice to implement separate food waste collection. Giving advice to councils wanting to start separate food waste collections, WRAP programme area manager for food waste collections Chris Mills says: "Do a thorough analysis of the options, including a review of how the service could be implemented alongside other waste and recycling services and use assumptions appropriate for your area. Do contact WRAP for help and advice in this area." Kier Services head of market development Mark Hogan adds: "Make sure you understand your population. Make sure you predict your yields correctly. The majority of contracts we enter into, you find that yields tend to tail off pretty quickly. This means that there needs to be a lot of investment and ongoing communication. Do not underestimate your population." So what could England learn from Wales' food waste scheme? Waste policy in Wales is different to England and it is fully devolved to the Welsh government. Its policy preference is to recycle food waste via AD. Key to its strategy of reaching a 70% recycling by 2025, was the statutory separation and weekly collection of food waste from all households to deliver a nutrient fertiliser for Welsh agriculture and renewable energy through AD. As a result of this, 22 local authorities collect food waste in Wales. It has a 51% recycling rate (food waste contributes 6-7% of this). It is also planning proposals to ban food waste from landfill and energy from waste. Welsh Government head of waste strategy branch Andy Rees acknowledges that it wasn't "all plain sailing" to implement its food waste collection scheme and a lot "squabbling" took place. His advice to councils is to obtain vehicles with a variety of separate departments. He adds: "Always try to obtain production and preparation waste that you cannot eat."

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