Mapping Waste in the Food Industry

Oakdene Hollis survey prepared for the Food and Drink Federation and DEFRA in August 2008.

Executive Summary
Introduction

Executive Summary

This report was commissioned by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and Defra to assess the amount of food and packaging waste arising across FDF's membership, the geographic spread of this waste and how it is being managed against the waste hierarchy.

This report aggregates survey returns from 236 production sites by area, usually counties. Counties with low (or high) numbers of site returns were aggregated (or split) to maintain confidentiality (or meaningful analysis).

The survey provides a snapshot of the quantity and distribution of food and packaging waste arising across FDF's member companies during 2006.

The survey found that overall, the quantity of food and packaging waste sent directly to landfill was modest, with just under 138,000t of waste sent to landfill in 2006 (16.5% of total tonnage). This was not uniformly distributed across the UK: over a quarter of the waste was produced by Scotland, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire.

All parts of the country employed some method of recovery for at least part of their waste. Of the total 835,000t of waste produced, 686,000t (82%) were recycled or recovered in some way. An additional 512,000t of potential waste was avoided through the use of by-products, in for example animal feed.

The report gives a geographical breakdown of waste by type and disposal/recovery method. It highlights the areas in which waste is potentially available for exploitation as a resource, and the recovery routes which may be appropriate.

Although mixed waste comprised only 135,000t of the total waste, it represented a much higher proportion of landfilled waste (110,000t of 138,000t). This suggests that a future priority could be segregation methods for such waste, preferably at source, in order to save valuable resources.

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Introduction

In October 2007 the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) committed, on behalf of its members, to making a significant contribution to improving the environment by targeting priorities where they can make the biggest difference. Working collectively, their 'Five-fold Ambition' is to:

i. show leadership nationally and internationally by achieving a 20% absolute reduction in CO2 emissions by 2010 compared to 1990 and aspiring to a 30% reduction by 2020;

ii. send zero food and packaging waste to landfill from 2015;

iii. make a significant contribution to WRAP's work to achieve an absolute reduction in the level of packaging reaching households by 2010 compared to 2005 and provide more advice to consumers on how best to recycle or otherwise recover used packaging;

iv. achieve significant reductions in water use and contribute to an industry-wide absolute target to reduce water use by 20% by 2020 compared to 2007;

v. embed environmental standards in their transport practices, including contracts with hauliers as they fall for renewal, to achieve fewer and friendlier food transport miles and contribute to an absolute target for the food chain to reduce its environmental and social impacts by 20% by 2012 compared to 2002.

This survey was commissioned jointly by FDF and Defra. It is important to FDF for the delivery of its ambition to send zero food and packaging waste to landfill by 2015. It is important to Defra given the Government's waste priorities set out in its 2007 Waste Strategy and, in particular, Defra's interest in identifying where waste is arising as a first step to understanding the causes and opportunities for preventing some of this waste occurring.

The survey provides a snapshot of the level of food and packaging waste arising across FDF's member companies during 2006 and its geographical distribution. It will help inform FDF, Defra and WRAP's work with the waste industry to encourage new waste treatment capacity in areas where waste arisings are the highest and therefore demand likely to be greatest.

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