‘123 Pledge’ a reason for widespread optimism – ReFood’s Philip Simpson.

In this article, Philip Simpson (pictured below), commercial director at ReFood, discusses the 123 Pledge and explains why international collaboration when it comes to fighting food waste and loss should be celebrated.

ReFood is a UK food waste recycler, delivering a reliable food waste collection service tailored to exacting site requirements. Once collected, food waste is recycled to generate renewable energy and sustainable biofertilizer with clients saving as much as 50% on waste management costs.

THE PLEDGE

Unveiled by Champions 12.3, UNEP and FAO, along with WWF, WRAP and Rabobank, the 123 Pledge was announced in November to coincide with the conclusion of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. Challenging governments, businesses and chefs to commit to reducing food loss and waste, the pledge aims to accelerate global progress towards tackling the climate crisis.

After all, according to the UN Environment Programme, food waste costs the global economy more than £841 million per annum and is responsible for more than four times the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of all annual aviation combined. More than one third of all food produced across the globe is said to be lost post-harvest, including 14% within the food supply chain and 17% at retail and consumer level.

Yet while food waste is said to be responsible for 10% of all global GHGs, just a handful of countries recognise it as part of their climate plans. Liz Goodwin, senior fellow and director of food loss and waste at World Resources Institute, suggests that this puts the world “woefully behind where it needs to be” in terms of sustainability progress.

The 123 Pledge was created to inspire global change – and uniformity – in the fight against food loss and waste. Requirements for those vowing their commitment include setting clear objectives with a strong climate angle, being timebound, ensuring measurability and showing transparency toward achieving the goal of halving food waste and loss by 2030.

Commitments have already been made by Unilever, which will continue to focus on halving food waste in its direct operations by 2025, as well as WRAP, which has pledged to deliver food loss and waste projects aligned with the Pledge impact areas in countries with a combined population of more than one billion by 2030.

MORE TO DO

At ReFood, we believe that any initiative to tackle food waste, especially at a global level, should be celebrated. As such, we wholeheartedly support the 123 Pledge and consider its introduction a reason for widespread optimism where mobilising global action on food loss and waste as a climate strategy is concerned.

After all, food is a hugely valuable resource and one that shouldn’t be left to rot in landfill. In the UK alone, we throw away 10 million tonnes of food waste every year – 60% of which is considered perfectly edible. At the same time, it is estimated that one in nine people are either hungry or undernourished, a statistic that will undoubtedly increase in the wake of rising energy bills, escalating interest rates and a cost of living crisis reaching levels not seen in more than 50 years.

Our message is simple – food waste is a travesty and finding simple ways to minimise it, wherever it occurs, should be prioritised. We’ve been campaigning for nearly a decade for a national ban on food waste to landfill across the UK. Working in partnership with trade bodies, celebrity chefs, politicians and thought leaders from across the food supply chain, we spearheaded the Vision 2020 movement in 2013 and have lobbied the government to change legislation ever since.

While our efforts and the traction of Vision 2020 have since played an instrumental part in reducing the UK’s food waste volumes (from 14 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes PCA), joined-up government support to make a positive change has always fallen short of expectations. In my opinion, food waste should be high on the political agenda and legislative support is key to drive measurable change.

As a major UK food waste recycler, we collect unwanted food waste from businesses and local authorities across the UK and recycle it via the anaerobic digestion (AD) process. We capture the biogas produced and use it to generate renewable energy – both electricity and gas. During the process, we also create a sustainable biofertilizer, enabling beneficial nutrients to be retained and reinvested right back to the beginning of the food chain.

Our three state of the art facilities in the UK collectively recycle more than 400,000 tonnes of food waste per annum, providing a sustainable outlet for waste that would otherwise be landfilled. While the national priority should be to reduce food waste, our process at least provides a failsafe solution for the unavoidable fraction.

A zero-waste world may just be a pipedream, but working towards it is critical to realising food waste reduction; not just in the UK, but worldwide. Initiatives such as the 123 Pledge, which, importantly, are established to achieve clear targets, show that there is a genuine willingness to make positive change.

More can be found out about ReFood at www.refood.co.uk