Created by research and training charity IGD and sustainability body WRAP, the Roadmap lays out milestones to tackle food waste to which many of the UK’s largest retailers and food producers and have committed.
Richard Kirkman, chief technology and innovation officer at Veolia UK, said: “We know that we can all help cut food waste in our day-to-day lives, and we welcome this important move to halve business food waste in the UK.
“But it is not always possible to eliminate food waste completely, so to meet the carbon zero targets and help mitigate the impact of climate change it is essential we collect this material and use it as a new resource for generating green energy, and produce valuable organic products such as compost and fertilisers.
“Through innovation and new technologies, we can make sure we realise the real potential that is currently going to waste and deliver a more sustainable future.”
We are delighted to be the first recycling company to join @WRAP_UK #FoodWasteReductionRoadmap to help enable our customers to reduce their food waste https://t.co/Z6OoCFPptT pic.twitter.com/2S3gbdab5r
— Veolia UK (@VeoliaUK) January 8, 2020
Roadmap
So far, 185 organisations have committed to the initiative, including retailers such as Aldi, Morrisons and Tesco.
Veolia says it will encourage its customers to support the drive to reduce food waste and, amongst other things, ensure food surplus suitable for redistribution is not wasted, and will instead go to feed people in need.
The company has multiple operations that collect food waste from households, businesses and industrial sources, which it then recycles to become compost, “carbon-neutral energy” and organic fertiliser for agriculture.
Veolia added that the renewable energy plants it operates save around 33,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.
The company processes 250,000 tonnes of food waste at the plants to generate around 35GWh of electricity per year, equivalent to powering 11,000 homes.
Climate change
Peter Maddox, director of WRAP, said: “The link between food waste and climate change is something we can no longer ignore.
“Globally, around a third of all food is wasted and the IPCC estimated that food waste contributed nearly 10% of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions between 2010 and 2016.
“Waste management companies like Veolia have an important role to play in helping to mitigate against this problem through engaging with their client base.
“We are delighted that Veolia is supporting the UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap in this way and will work with its clients to influence change. We would encourage others to follow its lead.”
Milestones
In practice, adopting the Roadmap means companies setting a food waste reduction target for their UK operations, measuring and reporting food surplus and waste according to the guidelines, taking action to reduce food waste in their own businesses and helping to reduce food waste from their suppliers and consumers through engagement and innovation.
Sector specific guidelines have been provided as part of the Roadmap, and these can be seen here.
Conference
Food waste will be on the agenda at the National Food Waste Conference, to be held on 29 January. More information can be found here.
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