Food waste is a global emergency – how is it even possible that around a third of the food produced is lost or wasted, contributing 10% of the total man-made emissions? There have long been calls for responsible, environmentally-conscious choices to be taken at every stage of supply-chains, and of course by each of us as consumers. And this has not gone away because of the resurgence of war, the social and economic case has in fact been strengthened; we’re going to need to eat that other 33% in order to survive.
So suffice it to say, we need to reduce food waste for some extremely compelling reasons; the food thrown away in UK households accounts for 25 million tonnes of CO2 every year, and to reduce this by 50% by 2035 as planned, we need to treat the food waste that we do produce differently than we have done in the past, separating it from other refuse and recycling streams so that it can be composted or put through a digestion process in order to generate energy and fertiliser rather than produce greenhouse gases which are harmful to the environment.
This process is manageable in homes with enough space, both in the kitchen for separate food caddies and outdoors for a food bin to store the material while it’s awaiting weekly collection by the local Council; but for those living in smaller flats this is notoriously difficult, and by the time they’ve fought their way through the debris in the communal bin store the thought of wrestling with a dirty food waste bin is not very appealing, to say the least of it.
So many Councils are installing dedicated food waste deposit points, making it as easy as possible for these households to dispose of organic material using a clean, hands-free system which isolates the user from the decomposing food, reduces odour and eliminates vermin. Recent trials indicate that Councils can expect to capture twice as much food waste from the residual waste stream than using conventional wheelie bins.
To find out more click here or contact a metroSTOR advisor on 01227 200404.
