Zero Waste to Landfill
FDF members will seek to send zero food and packaging waste to landfill from
2015.
The Challenge
The food and drink manufacturing industry is estimated to send about 3m tonnes
of food and packaging waste to
landfill each year1. Food waste in landfill sites gives rise to methane which is 21 times more
damaging to the environment
than CO2 emissions2. Sending food waste and, indeed, packaging waste, to landfill is discouraged
under the waste
hierarchy promoted by the Government. The hierarchy's guiding
principles are putting waste prevention first, followed
by reuse,
recycling/composting, energy recovery and lastly disposal.
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FDF's Ambition
FDF members will seek to send zero food and packaging waste to landfill from
2015, in line with the principles of the waste hierarchy.
In addition, members are committed to working with Waste & Resources Action
Programme (WRAP) under the Courtauld Commitment to achieve a 20% absolute
reduction in food and packaging waste arising at food and drink manufacturing premises
by 2010 against a 2006 baseline3.
FDF will keep this commitment to work with WRAP under review with the aim of
setting a further target in due course for 2020, subject to the development of
essential waste treatment infrastructure.
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Delivering Our Ambition
FDF will work closely with WRAP to identify and disseminate food and packaging
waste prevention best practice. This will include establishing a food and
packaging waste baseline, comprising of all FDF signatories to the Courtauld
Commitment,
along with a process for measuring and reporting in aggregate on their
progress.
FDF will also work closely with other partners such as FareShare to help avoid
waste disposal and the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme to maximise our
levels of resource recovery using the waste treatment infrastructure that is
currently
available.
FDF will press Defra, the Environment Agency and WRAP to encourage the
development of waste treatment infrastructure capacity. This is crucial if large scale
anaerobic digestion and composting of the sector's food and packaging waste
currently
being sent to landfill is to be achieved.
See Zero Waste to Landfill Company Case Studies
Footnote 1: Defra's 2007 Waste Strategy. Incpen/FDF 0.9mt of packaging waste.
Footnote 2: UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2006).
Footnote 3: To be taken forward as a new element of the Courtauld Commitment
and to apply
collectively to FDF signatories to that Commitment.
The information in this section is taken from a document entitled The Environment: Making a real difference (pdf, 1.4Mb) published by FDF in October 2007 .
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Last reviewed: 22 Nov 2007