The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has announced that food waste collection services for businesses will increase after seven waste collection contractors are awarded funding.
From this summer, separate catering waste collections from businesses including restaurants, cafés and pubs will divert an additional 26,000 tonnes of food waste from landfill by 2014, following £500,000 funding by WRAP.
Linda Crichton, Head of Collections and Quality at WRAP commented: “Preventing and reducing waste is the most important thing we can do, and we hope to encourage all businesses (and households) to reduce their waste management costs as much as possible by preventing and reducing waste in the first instance. Where this is not possible, reusing and recycling resources is the next best thing. Recycling food waste is not only good for the environment, but also saves money elsewhere in the supply chain.”
Over 40 companies applied for the funding when the three-year programme was unveiled in 2011, and on 7 June, the first seven companies to access the fund were announced. These companies now have access to money that can be put towards waste collection vehicles, bins and caddies, or for labour and overheads costs. All collected food waste must be recycled through an anaerobic digestion (AD) or In-vessel composting (IVC) process in England.
“The projects selected cover different collection approaches and contractual arrangements and will provide services to a range of food waste producing businesses and public sector organisations”, said Crichton. The first seven companies receiving funding are: Cape, Greenability (Biovo), First Mile, SITA, Leeds Paper, Yorwaste and Brighton Paper Round which service cities including London, Bristol, Birmingham and York (see table below for full break down).
| Name of funding recipient | Approx. project tonnes | Collection area |
|---|---|---|
| Cape | 2,500 | Devon |
| Greenability (Bioco) | 8,500 | Cambridge, Manchester, Birmingham |
| First Mile | 1,000 | London |
| SITA | 2,200 | Bristol |
| Leeds Paper | 6,000 | Leeds |
| Yorwaste | 2,500 | York |
| Brighton Paper Round | 1,000 | Brighton |
Aside from the funding, WRAP is also providing information to recipients about the benefits of food waste collections and is developing tools to help all businesses prevent and reduce their food waste. These tools will be available from the WRAP website in Autumn 2012.
Further funding recipients will be announced in phase 2 of the roll out of this funding, later this summer.
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