“Labour’s backtrack on banning food waste to landfill is hugely disappointing news for the entire waste management sector,” said Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood.
“In the next five years, landfill sites across the UK will be nearing capacity, which makes minimising the volume of unnecessary waste and increasing recycling figures absolutely essential.”
Election manifesto
A spokesman for shadow environment secretary Maria Eagle confirmed that a ban on food waste going to landfill had been discussed at an earlier stage of the parliament, but was not agreed at Labour’s national policy forum last July and would, therefore, not appear in its election manifesto.
“On waste policy the commitment to ban food waste going to landfill has been superseded by a commitment to a review of resource,” he said. “It would be unwise to decide on anything before this review is done.”
Simpson claimed that by failing to implement legislation in this area, England was falling behind other EU nations, as well as other parts of the UK. “Gaining clear commitment is a stumbling block we’ve been looking to overcome for a number of years now, but one that must be overcome in order to both meet waste [recycling] targets and offset depleting landfill space,” he added.
ReFood converts food waste into electrical energy, while the residue is used as a nutrient-rich fertiliser.
“Ultimately, we need to achieve behavioural change across businesses, local authorities and individuals to increase recycling in the UK but, without wider government support, this will be unachievable,” said Simpson.
Paul Featherstone, group director of surplus food recycler SugaRich, which converts manufacturing starch-rich food waste into animal feed, also regretted the news from Labour.
‘Colossal issue’
“Food waste is a colossal issue in the UK and the wider EU, so much more effort is needed on a cross-party basis to tackle this problem,” he said.
“Greater effort should be exerted at earlier stages in the food chain, if we are to achieve the ever-pressing target to halve edible food waste by 2020.
“Not only would more responsible waste management practices better protect the global environment, and the security of increasingly scarce raw materials, they would also reduce the economic strain that throwaway behaviours can cause.”