Mayor of London endorses separate food waste collections

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has endorsed calls for the city’s waste authorities to begin separate food waste collections.

In the newly published Environment Strategy, the Mayor lays out plans to ‘tackle the most urgent environmental challenges’ facing the city. According to the Mayor’s office, it’s the city’s first integrated environmental strategy, with an aim to combine approaches ‘to every aspect of London’s’ environment. This includes air quality, green infrastructure, and waste.

The strategy states the Mayor’s goal is to ‘make London a zero waste city’, with no biodegradeable or recyclable waste being sent to landfill by 2026, and for 65% of the city’s municipal waste to be recycled by 2030.

One measure the Mayor lays out is setting minimum recycling standards for London’s waste authorities to meet by 2020, including a requirement for separate food waste collection.

The draft strategy was published for a 14-week public consultation between the 11 August and 17 November 2017. 

 

What does it mean for the AD industry?

 The UK Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), has welcomed the new strategy.

“As anyone who lives in London knows, the city faces a major challenge in tackling the huge amount of food waste produced by millions of homes and businesses every day,” said ADBA’s chief executive, Charlotte Morton.

“We are therefore pleased to see Sadiq Khan endorsing separate food waste collections across the capital to allow anaerobic digestion to recycle London’s inedible food waste into renewable heat and power, clean transport fuel, and nutrient-rich biofertiliser.”