Food waste collection

Our next two-part blog series addresses the status of food waste collection and treatment in England. This series is intended to provide information to public and private sectors to manage food wastes. In this first blog we address the food waste hierarchy, key legislation and food waste collection; moving on to treatment processes and associated costs in our second blog of the series.

The Food Waste Hierarchy

Before discussing food waste collection and treatment in England, it’s important to think about the food waste hierarchy in more general terms. Prevention is better than treatment or disposal. The food waste hierarchy can be useful for developing an understanding of preventing and managing food waste to minimise environmental impact. The hierarchy can be applied to a number of organisations and businesses that produce, handle, treat or dispose of surplus food or waste food. This includes farmers and producers, manufacturers, local authorities, hospitality and retailers. There are 8 stages of the hierarchy as illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Food Waste Hierarchy

In the first instance, it is better to prevent or reduce food waste and this is the most favourable option. This can be achieved by ordering smaller amounts or introducing campaigns that help people to make use of left-over food. WRAP has just published a study that shows food waste recycling spurs waste prevention(1).

The second best option is to redistribute surplus food to charities and individuals via various digital channels. If this is not possible, surplus food can be used as animal feed. However, there are strict guidelines for utilising surplus food in animal products, therefore government guidance should be followed if using this method. Food waste can also be used for industrial products, for example, it can be converted into packaging material, or bio plastics if appropriate. The fifth most preferable option is to recycle any food waste via the process of anaerobic digestion or composting. Anaerobic digestion is better for the environment than composting and can also produce renewable energy (biogas). Digestate is produced as a byproduct of the process. Food waste can also be recovered for land spreading. Compost and digestate can be used as organic fertiliser and spread on to land, but must meet certain requirements before this is carried out. If food waste cannot be recycled then it can be sent to be recovered for energy. This would include incineration at an energy from waste facility. The final level and least favourable option of the hierarchy is to dispose of food in landfill. This should only be used when there is no other alternative.

Having a clear understanding of the food waste hierarchy is an important step in assessing the best method of treatment and disposal. However, some collection and treatment opportunities are more widely accessible than others.

Background

The legislation for the collection of food waste comes under Section 57 of the Environment Act 2021(2). Under this, waste collection authorities in England must arrange a weekly collection of food waste for recycling or composting from households. Also, non-household municipal premises in England must arrange for the separate collection of food waste and to present their waste in accordance with these arrangements, but they are not required to have weekly collections.

The English Government’s preference is for food waste to be collected for treatment by anaerobic digestion (AD), which presents the best environmental outcome for the treatment of unavoidable food waste, due to the generation of electricity / bio-methane and digestate. This digestate can be spread to agriculture, ensuring nutrients are recycled, supporting an element of the circular economy.

The English Government is making it mandatory for food waste collection (from households and businesses by April 2026 and 2025 respectively) and treatment to maximise food use, minimise food waste and drive up recycling rates, as reported in the 2023 Government consultation response(3). The collection and treatment of food waste is more sustainable than its disposal as residual waste, and it helps with UK food security(4).

The Scottish and the Welsh Governments are already well ahead of the English Government on food waste. The Scottish and Welsh Government published Waste Plans in 2010 and 2011, assessed in 2013 for the collection and treatment of household and business food waste(5).

Food waste collection

In February 2024 WRAP reported that only 43% of properties in England received food waste collection(6). There is therefore a lot of work for local authorities to do to collect food waste from April 2026.

Food waste should be collected weekly. When food waste collection was initially introduced it was collected on pods on refuse collection vehicles with residual waste. These however don’t provide the capacity needed and there are issues regarding weekly collection.

Residents are given 5L internal food waste caddies together with around 23L external food waste bins. Driver plus one crews in rural areas and driver plus two crews in urban areas collect the food waste from the external bins and place it in decant 140L wheeled bins which are mechanically lifted into the food waste collection vehicle, or food waste from the external bins are loaded directly into the food waste collection vehicle. 240L decant wheeled bins can be too heavy to wheel.

Food waste collection vehicles range from 7.5t side loaders capable of carrying around 2.75t, to 12t and above rear and top loaders capable of carrying more than 3.5t. The smaller vehicles are chosen for more rural areas and the larger vehicles for urban areas.

High rise flats and flats above shops offer a challenge to food waste collection as it is much easier for residents to continue to dispose food waste with residual waste, rather than try to find room for caddies and the transfer of food waste to external bins. There have been many studies on the issues of collecting recyclable wastes from flats e.g. The Waste in Tall Buildings study(7).

Food waste has been collected comingled with garden waste by some authorities and treated by in-vessel composting. This treatment method is not excluded by the legislation or policy, but local authorities have to collect food waste weekly and may wish to collect garden waste less often, and certainly won’t be able to charge for it!

That’s all for this week, in our next blog post we will be addressing AD treatment and the associated costs.

FRM provides advice to local authorities and businesses on the collection and treatment of food waste. FRM may act as a Critical Friend providing advice on the delivery of food waste services. Alternatively, we can lead on the provision of food waste services for public and private sector organisations.

(1) https://www.wrap.ngo/sites/default/files/2024-07/SKIM-x-WRAP-Opportunities-Prevention-Household-Food-Waste-Collections-V4.pdf (2) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/30/section/57 (3) https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consistency-in-household-and-business-recycling-in-england/outcome/government-response (4) https://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/challenge/uk-threat/ (5) https://research.senedd.wales/media/zr1lrvry/rn13-024-english.pdf (6) https://www.wrap.ngo/resources/webinar/lets-talk-about-food-waste-collections (7) https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/57._waste_in_tall_buildings_2018.pdf