Responses to a Food and Drink Federation (FDF) survey on waste management have revealed that in 2012, 84 FDF member sites diverted 97 per cent of waste from landfill.

Undertaken by analysts Oakdene Hollinson behalf of FDF, the surveycollected data on food and packaging waste arisings from FDF members’ manufacturing sites in 2012.

The survey highlights progress made towards FDF’s ‘Five-Fold Environmental Ambition’ – a commitment launched in 2007 to improve the sector’s environmental performance – which aims to see zero waste sent to landfill by 2015, amongst other targets.

It shows that, since 2009, FDF members have decreased their reliance on landfill by six per cent.

Breakdown of figures

A report on the findings, published jointly with WRAP today (28 February), showed that the 135 FDF sites that responded to the survey collectively generated 196,477 tonnes of food and packaging waste.

Details of how waste was managed was given by 84 sites (accounting for 138,800 tonnes of waste), which showed that just three per cent (4,214 tonnes) of mixed waste was sent to landfill.

The remaining 97 per cent was sent for recovery through:

• ‘landspreading’ (37 per cent);
• recycling (28 per cent);
• ‘thermal treatment with energy recovery’ (19 per cent);
• anaerobic digestion (eight per cent); or
• composting (four per cent).

According to FDF, the popularity of landspreading (laying biodegradable waste on land for agricultural benefit) is down to:

• it being cheaper than other options, ‘particularly when the site is based in a rural area where agricultural land is plentiful’;
• the proximity of agricultural land to member sites; and
• the fact that wastes such as liquid wastes and sludges are ‘more suited for this type of treatment compared to AD and composting’.

However, when looking at waste separated out into category (i.e. packaging or food waste), recycling increased in popularity – with 96 per cent of all packaging waste being sent for recovery through this route (and the remainder largely sent for energy recovery or to landfill).

For food waste, the most popular option was to redistribute it to other uses, notably to animal feed. Interestingly, however, the other most popular options for disposing of food waste collected separately from other wastes (around 78,000 tonnes), were nearly evenly split between anaerobic digestion (9,362 tonnes) and thermal treatment with energy recovery (9,067 tonnes), despite the clear environmental benefits of AD and FDF promoting AD as the best option for food waste disposal. Indeed, even Defra’s recently-released guide to EfW indicates that biogenic material should not be treated through incineration.

The report reads: ‘As can be seen, 90 per cent of the waste being sent to landfill is mixed food and packaging waste... This calls for improvements in waste segregation at manufacturing sites to enable a larger proportion of these materials to be recovered.

‘Manufacturers should aim to prevent the generation of such waste; where this is not possible, such waste should be segregated upon generation with recycling of packaging waste and anaerobic digestion of food waste being a first consideration. Where mixed wastes are still arising, thermal treatment with energy recovery should be considered as a better option than landfill.’

Only four tonnes of food waste were sent to landfill or thermal treatment without energy recovery in 2012.

Geographical differences

The survey also found that FDF member sites located in South East and East England produced the largest tonnage of waste, accounting for 35 per cent of the total waste generated, which is more than double the next largest region, Yorkshire and the Humber.

Scotland was the region sending the highest amount of waste to landfill, closely followed by the North West and South West of England. Although Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales generated seven per cent of total waste, they accounted for 35 per cent of the waste being landfilled.

‘Businesses should focus on waste prevention’

Speaking of the figures, Andrew Kuyk, Director of Sustainability at the Food and Drink Federation, said:
“Tackling food waste is a key priority for our industry, both to make what we have go further but to also help conserve the natural resources on which future production depends. These latest findings highlight that FDF members are close to achieving our zero food and packaging waste target by ingraining good environmental practices to deliver a more resilient and resource-efficient supply chain.

“Working in partnership with independent bodies such as WRAP and our partners across the supply chain, the industry has been able to ensure significant progress to reach these targets, enabling manufacturers to waste less or use any that is generated in a more environmentally-friendly way.”

Andy Dawe, Head of Food and Drink at WRAP, said:
“We are delighted to see these latest results, which show good progress from the industry. With waste to landfill now so low, businesses should grasp the opportunity to focus on the greater financial savings achievable through focusing on waste prevention.

“WRAP is happy to support businesses, and the supply chain as a whole, to identify where waste is arising and enable them to find the solutions to prevent such waste, making large financial and environmental savings.”

Read the FDF food waste survey report or find out more about its Five-fold Environmental Ambition.