UP FRONT
The business of food waste WASTE MANAGEMENT REVIEW EXPLORES WHY SO FEW BUSINESSES HAVE FOOD WASTE COLLECTION AND PROCESSING SYSTEMS IN PLACE.
T
he Federal Government’s 2011 National Food Waste Assessment called the increased generation of food waste a global and national problem – specifically highlighting concerns over the economic and environmental viability of existing food waste disposal systems. In the following eight years, the issue of food waste generation has persisted, with the 2018 National Food Waste Baseline Report showing 7.3 million tonnes of the waste stream was produced between 2016 and 2017 – the equivalent of 298 kilograms per person. According to the report, 7.3 million
Data on food waste has historically been limited.
18 / WMR / June 2019
tonnes represents 4.9 per cent of Australia’s total waste. In an interview with Waste Management Review earlier this year, MRA Consulting’s Mike Ritchie estimated that only five per cent of Australian businesses separate and recycle their food and organic waste. Given generation figures, developing programs to incentivise businesses to recycle food waste could significantly reduce waste to landfill. The 2017 Food Waste Opportunities report, prepared by the Institute of Sustainable Futures for the NSW EPA, shows the two principal contributors of food waste sent to landfill in NSW are the
wholesale and retail sector. Additionally, the report shows that of the 236,000 tonnes of food waste generated by those sectors in 2016, only 13 per cent was recycled. When applied to businesses, the cost of food waste exceeds environmental disposal concerns, with the stream creating lost expenditure on food, wasted staff time, customer dissatisfaction and hygiene issues. According to the Food Waste Opportunities report, the reasons for not recycling food waste ranged from staff not being aware or willing to separate food waste from general waste, insufficient financial motivation, lack of space, cost of food waste recycling compared to general waste collection, a limited number of recycling facilities and issues around contamination via packaging. Wholesalers and retailers expressed particular concern over the lack of sufficient collection services for food waste, according to the report. One facility specifically mentioned by industry stakeholders in the report was EarthPower, a joint venture between Veolia and Cleanaway. EarthPower, which received a grant from the NSW EPA to enable the processing of more food waste, operates at a capacity of 52,000 tonnes per annum – half of which
