Last month, Kerry McCarthy introduced a Food Waste Bill which could see around 400,000 tonnes of food fit for human consumption redistributed to those living in food poverty.
As well as being obliged to donate unsold foods, under the proposed Bill, large supermarkets and manufacturers would have to reduce food waste by 30% by 2025 and officially report all details of food waste throughout their supply chains.
ReFood’s commercial director, Philip Simpson, believes the Bill could be an instrumental step forward for reducing food waste in the UK but thinks recycling must also play a key role. As the UK’s leading food waste recycler, collecting waste food and turning it into renewable energy via the anaerobic digestion process, ReFood produces enough energy to power 25,000 homes.
He said: “We fully support Kerry McCarthy’s Food Waste Bill and think its introduction an excellent proposition – not only for minimising the shocking wastage of food in the UK but also to reduce the volume of such a valuable resource still being sent to landfill. We have been campaigning for many years for the Government to tackle the growing food waste crisis, so it is hugely positive to see a proposal for clear and decisive action at a parliamentary level.”
The Food Waste Reduction Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 9th September and a second reading has been given, meaning the Bill will be drafted and read to Parliament on 29th January 2016.
Simpson continued: “Reducing the amount of food we waste in the UK and redistributing surplus food is very important but it is just one part of the problem. There needs to be a joined-up approach so that as well as reducing what food waste we can, we also recycle what is left. Inevitably there will be some food that ends up in the bin, such as plate scrapings and vegetable peelings, however this can be effectively recycled and turned into renewable energy – something, as a nation, the UK has definitive need for.
“We have been campaigning for several years now for a governmental-level ban on sending food waste to landfill, as England is the only country in the UK that fails to do so. At the moment, food waste recycling decisions are left up to each individual business, but we need regulation to make sure this waste is recycled and reused wherever possible.
“If we were to achieve zero food waste to landfill nationwide, by 2020 we could generate over 1.1tW of energy, 27 million fewer tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, return over 1.3 million tonnes of nutrient-rich fertiliser to farmland and save the public sector over £3.7 billion – a huge economic benefit which is currently being overlooked.”