UK AD industry asks for funding towards food waste collection

The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association’s chief executive Charlotte Morton has written to the UK Treasury and Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) requesting that government funding be made available for the fast-tracking of separate food waste collection.

In the letters, Morton highlighted the need for funding towards local authorities to roll out separate food waste collection as well as reiterating the importance of AD in recycling inedible food waste into energy and natural fertiliser.

“We warmly welcomed the government’s commitment to universal separate food waste collections, but we know from conversations with local authorities that they need certainty that they will be supported to implement this policy, given the competing pressures on their budgets,” said Morton.

“We estimate that universal food waste collections for households alone could achieve a carbon saving of up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent per year, the equivalent to taking three quarters of a million cars off the road, while the National Infrastructure Commission has estimated that they would save local authorities up to £400 million (€455 million) in capital costs and £1.1 billion (€1.25 billion) in operational costs between 2020 and 2050.

“If the funding support is effective and gets buy-in from local authorities, the evidence from Wales of the impact of universal food waste collections in boosting recycling rates and diverting food from landfill is compelling.”