Food Waste Action Week 2023
- News
- - March 15, 2023
From 6th–12th March 2023, we were all encouraged to love food and hate waste during the third annual Food Waste Action Week
Key Points
- A week of action to raise awareness of the food waste crisis
- Aims to halve the amount of food that's binned by 2030
- 2023's focus was on improving the range of skills everyone can use to reduce food waste
- Spotlight on Local Authorities
- Challenges remain in the industry
Practical changes
Food Waste Action Week 2021 focused on climate change and some of the problems that wasting food can cause.
Food Waste Action Week 2022 looked at the impact our actions have and spread the message that wasting food is not acceptable.
The theme of this year’s Action Week was “Win, Don’t Bin”. The organisation, along with its partners, offered advice on how households can mitigate the wastage of food.
The aim throughout was to show everyone the value of food in our lives, how it brings people together, and how using it all up goes a long way in saving money, time, and the planet.
In practical terms, the campaign worked towards increasing people’s confidence in the range of skills that help them use up leftovers.
WRAP recruited several key partners to help spread the message to as many people as possible, with 162 organisations (up by over 100% from last year’s 80 organisations) across 12 countries taking part. Leading the charge was Ocado Retail, which was the first confirmed sponsor for the campaign.
Weekly food waste collections
The problem of food waste is now in the spotlight more than ever before. The challenges posed by climate change mean that a whole raft of harmful habits and behaviours will need to be changed if the country is to meet its Net Zero target.
The Environment Act 2021 placed a new responsibility on local authorities to begin weekly household food waste collections. Currently, around 50% of local authorities already provide food waste collection, but some of these only offer the service fortnightly, often alongside their green waste collection.
From 2025, all local authorities will need a waste and resources action plan and be required to provide a collection on a weekly basis. This is likely to present a logistical challenge for many authorities, but by reducing household food waste and providing a collection for the waste that is produced the government hopes to drive down the carbon footprint of UK food waste.
Industry challenges
As well as household food waste, businesses are also responsible for significant quantities of food waste. From leisure and hospitality to supermarkets and food manufacturing businesses, unwanted ingredients, processed foods and other resources are frequently thrown away.
Reducing the amount of food that is wasted across the board is a key challenge for the UK over the coming years but doing so can be challenging for individual businesses.
There are problems of storage, transportation, and disposal to consider. Financial and environmental costs have to be taken into consideration, as well as any regulatory requirements that businesses are required to meet. Wasting food feeds climate change so government pressure on industry to lower the amount of food that is lost or wasted is likely to increase. Industry requirements for a cohesive resources action programme will be paramount.
BioteCH4 can provide the solution
BioteCH4 is one of the leading anaerobic digestion operators in the country. We handle the safe and environmentally appropriate collection and transportation of food waste, oils, and fats for recycling. Working with local authorities and commercial organisations, we provide a range of solutions to help reduce the amount of food waste that ends up in landfills. We also understand that few businesses have the time, inclination, or resources to devote to managing their food waste.
We act as the link between food producers and the end-user, offering a pallet collection service for food waste that might otherwise be financially prohibitive to deal with. We make it easier for businesses to recycle their food waste, whilst also helping them to lower their carbon footprint overall.
We can collect and process food waste, oils and fats and category 3 animal by-products as well as local authority and commercial waste.
We’re always happy to provide advice and answer any questions you might have about food waste and our food waste management services. Email enquiries@ch4mail.com to find out more.
