Scotland aims to bin food waste - Julie Canet

It may come as a shock to learn that in Scotland, about one million tonnes of food and drink is wasted each year. In 2013, the Scottish Government committed to reduce food waste by 33 per cent by 2025. As reported by The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), food waste is around 9.5 million tonnes in the UK, 70 per cent of which was intended to be consumed by people (30 per cent being the ‘inedible' parts). The value is over £19 billion a year, and the food that could have been eaten represents over 15 billion meals – this is enough to feed the entire UK population three meals a day for 11 weeks!

The percetage of households recycling their food waste more than doubled between 2012 and 2017, going from 26 per cent to 55 per cent

Over a billion tonnes of food are wasted every year around the world, which represents one third of food produced for consumption. Beyond the huge waste of energy and resources, this type of waste also generates around 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, because food waste releases methane gas when it goes to landfill, which is more dangerous than carbon dioxide.

Globally, 61 per cent of our food waste comes from households, 25 per cent from food and drink manufacturing and 14 per cent from other sources. Looking closer to home, Scottish households waste more than £1bn worth of food each year. This type of food waste accounts for 2,240,000 tonnes CO2 eq – 2.9 per cent of Scotland’s carbon footprint. The good news is that the percetage of households recycling their food waste more than doubled between 2012 and 2017, going from 26 per cent to 55 per cent. In Edinburgh, 36 per cent of the waste produced by households is food waste and in 2019 more than 163,000 food waste caddies were collected per week, recycling 700 tonnes.

According to Zero Waste Scotland, in the whisky, fish and beer sectors alone, we could save from £500 to £800 million every year by making better use of waste and by-products.

Julie Canet is a Part-Qualified Trade Mark Attorney, Marks & Clerk

There is a landfill ban as part of the Scottish Government’s “Zero Waste Plan”, which aims to achieve a nationwide recycling rate of 70 per cent by 2025, with only five per cent of remaining waste going to landfill. Landfill operators will be banned from accepting Biodegradable Municipal Waste. Initially set for 2021, the compliance deadline has been pushed back to 2025.

The government’s action plan, in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, include measures such as improved monitoring and infrastructure, sector leadership, public engagement and communication, and delivery of a new approach to food waste. The focus is on prevention: Food only becomes waste when it no longer complies with food safety or hygiene requirements. The first way of reducing food waste is to make sure food is eaten before it becomes waste through effective labelling and improved redistribution.

According to the “Too Good To Go” initiative, wrong labelling and confusion arising from labels causes ten per cent of Europe’s food waste – 9,000,000 tonnes per year. However, Scotland is leading the charge when it comes to redistribution with community fridges (in Kirkcaldy, Glasgow and Mull & Iona); Edinburgh’s Food Sharing Hub (facilitated by the Shrub Co-op working with Tesco, Co-op and Lidl) and; mobile applications such as Too Good To Go, OLIO, etc.

Scotland is also making impressive strides in food recycling where materials are collected in food waste caddies across the country and taken to an anaerobic digester, which turns it into electricity. In Edinburgh, it is broken down and produces gas, which is used to power The Millerhill Recycling and Energy Recovery Centre (RERC) and then goes into the national grid.

The food and drink industry now recognises food waste as an under-utilised resource stream. More than 27 million tonnes of bio-resources arise every year in Scotland (Zero Waste Scotland 2017) which could be converted into low cost, high quality animal feeds or turned into high value renewable products.

It is great to see Scottish initiatives at the heart of food waste reduction, and a rise in awareness of its impact in the fight against climate change. At Marks & Clerk we are delighted to combine our technical expertise with knowledge of the food and drink and dnergy sectors to support Scottish businesses in meeting these government targets.

Julie Canet is a Part-Qualified Trade Mark Attorney, Marks & Clerk