Waste: promoting resource efficiency

"FDF has been working closely with FareShare, the national food charity. It relieves food poverty through the redistribution of surplus food that might otherwise end up in the waste stream"

As part of our Ambition to send zero food and packaging waste to landfill from 2015, FDF has been working closely with WRAP on a number of waste prevention reviews at sites across the UK which have helped identify best practice for sharing more broadly across the sector.

To date, site reviews have been carried out at 13 companies. These reviews examined the waste being produced on site as well as ways of optimising the use of primary, secondary and tertiary packaging. Products, and their packaging, were also monitored through the distribution chain to the back of store.

The reviews have highlighted the priorities for waste prevention, identifying and quantifying the intervention points and possible cost savings, with action plans developed.

Most sites are performing well in areas such as waste management, process control and monitoring and variance reporting.

Areas showing potential for further improvements include ingredient shrinkage, preventative maintenance to reduce unplanned machine stoppages and the development of production ready packaging (PRP) in respect of raw materials.

Best practice case studies are being developed with the project partners and we will share the findings across the sector.

PRP has been identified as one issue where crosscutting sectorial interventions could be taken forward to deliver real change and thereby wider benefits across the industry. Such action could reduce the amount of packaging used on raw materials and associated waste by at least 10% by weight for each site.

In this regard we plan to establish a joint FDF/WRAP working group to allow more in depth discussion of the challenges and to develop possible solutions.

Fareshare food redistibution Following the work FDF carried out last year under the framework of a joint industry and Government Waste Infrastructure Group to help improve accessibility to anaerobic digestion and composting capacity, the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) has launched a web tool for food and drink companies looking for recovery options for their waste as alternatives to landfill.

The tool is underpinned by a new single database, managed by NISP, which provides information on waste treatment capacity in areas such as anaerobic digestion, composting and thermal treatment.

FDF was also a member of the Government-appointed Anaerobic Digestion Task Group which developed an implementation plan for anaerobic digestion. Earlier this year, the group published its recommendations on how best to achieve a major increase in capacity by 2020. Such an increase is needed if the food industry is going to be able to deliver on its ambition to send zero food and packaging waste to landfill from 2015.

FDF has continued to work closely with FareShare, the national food charity which supports local community projects to relieve food poverty through the redistribution of surplus food that might otherwise end up in the waste stream.

FDF member Nestlé has also supported FareShare's efforts to establish FareShare 1st as a 'one stop shop' for handling surplus food from the industry.

We have been helping FareShare forge more partnerships with members through the promotion of its 10,000 pallet challenge, which aims to distribute a minimum of 5,750 tonnes of food a year; double the number of people receiving food from FareShare to 60,000 a day; and to increase the meals provided each year to 14 million. So far this year five additional partnerships have been forged with FDF member companies.

Looking ahead, FDF's priority is to disseminate the findings of our waste prevention reviews through good practice case studies and the establishment of our joint working group on PRP with WRAP to deliver real change across the sector.

FDF will also repeat its food and packaging waste survey – which we last carried out in 2008 – to collect data that will allow us to track progress towards our 2015 Ambition.

We will also continue to press Government to support the practical recommendations made by the Anaerobic Digestion Task Group in its recent report. We will also work with NISP and WRAP to ensure data on waste treatment capacity continues to be pooled, and the database maintained, for the benefit of our sector.

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