The Financial and Environmental Benefits of Recycling Food Waste
Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood, discusses the financial and environmental benefits of adopting food waste recycling practices for UK facilities teams.
The global food supply chain has experienced a hugely challenging few years. From the impacts of Brexit and the long-term disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, to irreversible pressures on supply, production and logistics resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, resilience has proven pivotal to keeping shelves stocked.
Even as we emerge from multiple national lockdowns and the waves of Brexit change begin to calm, supply chain pressures continue to build. In the UK, the rising cost of fuel is impacting logistics efficiencies, while energy prices are at an all-time high – putting even greater financial strain on almost every business.
Despite escalating pressures, an uncertain macro environment and plummeting profits, food must be grown, orders must be fulfilled, shelves must be stocked and people must be fed.
But while the picture may seem bleak, global supply chains continue to show unprecedented strength. Despite escalating pressures, an uncertain macro environment and plummeting profits, food must be grown, orders must be fulfilled, shelves must be stocked and people must be fed.
With market forces showing no sign of easing any time soon, maximising process efficiencies – wherever possible – is quickly becoming a board-level business priority. Whether switching suppliers, addressing dated approaches, tackling inefficiencies or embracing transformational technology, companies are looking for innovative solutions to cut costs, improve speed and drive productivity wherever possible.
One key area of focus emerging from the industry’s shake-up is the growing issue of food waste – a challenge experienced by almost every business across the food and beverage supply chain.
Tackling the challenge
For more than a decade, some of the United Kingdom’s leading businesses have been working towards achieving the targets outlined within the Courtauld Commitment to reduce waste and improve resource efficiency. In result, supply chain waste has reduced by more than 7% and over 6Mt of C02e emissions have been offset – an amount equivalent to permanently taking one million cars off the road.
Unilever, for example, has committed to halving food waste output and achieving zero food waste to landfill by 2025. Through its numerous brands, it intends to help customers, suppliers and partners to do the same through prevention and redistribution, as well as improving education across the supply chain. The company is lobbying to standardise date labels across the food industry, while its partnership with To Good To Go aims to connect hungry people with surplus food from restaurants and shops.
These examples, alongside many more, highlight that businesses – and facilities managers – are clearly no strangers to waste reduction, and for good reason too. According to WRAP, minimising food waste across the supply chain not only results in billions of pounds worth of savings for UK PLC, but also helps to meet stringent decarbonisation targets.
However, while many organisations are already working hard to reduce food waste wherever possible, it’s important to consider the unavoidable fraction. This is best explained as the percentage of food generated across the supply chain that can’t be eliminated, such as spoiled produce, shells, bones and gristle.
To effectively manage this fraction, facilities teams are turning to food waste recycling as a sustainable, circular, responsible alternative. A truly zero landfill solution, food waste recycling is a safe and secure solution to effectively dispose of unavoidable waste.
Recycling food waste
Food waste recycling harnesses anaerobic digestion (AD) to capture the value in waste. The process sees food and liquid waste naturally broken down in the absence of oxygen, with the methane released turned into clean, green renewable energy – both electricity and gas. Even the residual digestate, left at the end of the process, can be repurposed as a sustainable liquid biofertiliser and utilised by local farmers to aid crop growth.
The food waste recycling process is completely circular, with material diverted from landfill and used to grow the crops of tomorrow.
The food waste recycling process is completely circular, with material diverted from landfill and used to grow the crops of tomorrow. What’s more, it’s a sustainable and reliable source of renewable energy – increasingly important in a world challenged by energy supply security and targeting decarbonisation ambitions.
But alongside the environmental and circular economy benefits of food waste recycling, the financial benefits are equally as important. After all, with every tonne of general waste stung by landfill tax charges (which have already increased by £2.55 per tonne year-on-year), companies can avoid this costly spend and realise savings of c.50% on their waste management bills by embracing food waste recycling solutions.
Many waste management companies now offer food waste recycling collections, with a growing number of AD sites being developed nationwide to deal with the growing volume of feedstock. ReFood’s operations in the UK alone, for example, handle more than 400,000 tonnes of food waste every year.
The economic and sustainable arguments both add up, meaning food waste recycling is becoming ever-more popular. Hundreds of commercial-scale AD facilities are now operational nationwide, providing the supply chain with a sustainable alternative to landfill disposal.
While some businesses are hesitant to integrate food waste recycling into their wider management processes, considering it complicated, dirty and expensive, they couldn’t be further from the truth.
While some businesses are hesitant to integrate food waste recycling into their wider management processes, considering it complicated, dirty and expensive, they couldn’t be further from the truth. With regular collections to suit exacting waste volumes and separate, clearly marked bins, food waste recycling is no different to other refuse collection services. Companies like ReFood even offer bin washing as standard – providing clean, sanitised bins that can be used in areas where hygiene is paramount.
Looking to the future
While businesses have already come a long way in minimising waste and improving their sustainability, there is still further distance to travel. Food waste recycling plays an important part in sustainable waste management, providing the mechanism to turn unwanted, unavoidable food waste into energy in a closed-loop process.
It’s important to learn from best practice and for more businesses to adopt innovative waste management solutions. Food waste recycling is – in many ways – an easy win. Capable of minimising refuse costs, reducing reliance on landfill, offsetting carbon emissions, promoting sustainability across the supply chain and generating renewable energy, there are simply no drawbacks.
As facilities managers continue to push their circular economy credentials, its time for businesses to step up to the war on food waste. Reduction is key, re-use is important, but don’t forget to recycle the rest. With significant improvements possible with just small changes in habits, the supply chain is in a prime position to benefit.
