Food Waste: Sustainable solutions for business

It is estimated that a third of the world’s food produced for human consumption is wasted each year. Aside from the obvious unconscionability of the waste when 193 million people suffer food insecurity around the globe each year, food waste presents a significant environmental and economic risk.

When food is wasted, the resources used to produce the food (including water, energy and land) are also squandered. In circumstances where resources are becoming increasingly scarce, this represents an unacceptable and unjustifiable loss.

Food waste is also a significant driver of climate change. It is estimated that food waste is responsible for up to 10% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Further, when the value of the food, loss of resources and effect on the environment are factored in, food waste is estimated to cost the global economy USD 2.6 trillion.

In the UK, approximately 10 million tonnes of food is wasted each year at a cost of £20 billion. Moreover, food waste in the UK has traditionally been sent to landfill, where it decomposes to produce predominantly methane gas (which has a global warming potential 21 times greater than carbon dioxide).

It is unsurprising then, in line with its commitment to the environment and combatting climate change, that the UK Government has prioritized as one of its 5 key policy areas in its 25 Year Environment Plan (“the Plan”), the reduction of waste (including food waste) and the efficient use of resources through a transition to a circular economy.

The Plan sets out a number of ambitious goals around waste, including the elimination of food waste to landfill by 2030. To achieve this goal, policy initiatives necessarily focus on waste minimization in the first instance, through such measures as promoting awareness, changes to food labelling laws, initiatives such as the Courtauld Commitment. The latter is a voluntary agreement wherein participants across the UK food chain agree to deliver farm-to-fork reductions in food waste, greenhouse gas emissions and water stress, incentivization of sustainable purchasing by government, partnering business and charities to redistribute unspoiled food, and various policy levers (including the Landfill Tax and limits on food waste to landfill.

Where food waste is unavoidable, recycling and recovery through sustainable waste management solutions (such as anaerobic digestion, waste composting and incineration of waste with energy recovery) are favoured over disposal to landfill or incineration without energy recovery.

By managing resource efficiency to end of life (that is, repurposing and reusing the waste), society derives maximum benefit from the original resources that are kept in use for longer (that is, the waste becomes a resource) with fewer environmental impacts. Such circularity also provides new employment opportunities and ‘green’ growth through new industries, which is particularly important for the post-COVID economic recovery.

However, governments cannot achieve such significant change on their own. Businesses must also play their part by becoming more resource efficient, reducing their carbon footprint and adopting sustainable waste management practices. In fact, the cost to businesses of inaction on food waste, both in terms of time and to their bottom line (from resource inefficiencies, waste management costs, taxes and levies, data monitoring and reporting, and reputation) will only increase.

Planeteq can assist businesses in this respect. Planeteq’s Bio-Digester is a sustainable waste management solution that is easy-to-use, cost effective, energy efficient, low-maintenance, scalable and environmentally friendly. Installed on-site, the Bio-Digester acts similarly to a ‘human stomach’, using micro-organisms to break down and liquify food waste, which is then safely discharged into the sewage system.

By processing the food waste on-site, businesses benefit from a significant reduction in external waste management costs, whilst also reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with waste transport and landfill.

There is also a suggestion that the UK Government will shortly introduce mandatory ESG reporting similar to that of the European Union. As the digester is also linked to an on-line data analytics platform that provides the user with customizable data, each business will be able to effortlessly comply with any mandatory reporting requirements, whilst also using the data to drive waste minimization and resource efficiencies to meet its own corporate ESG goals.

If you would like further information, please contact Planeteq to understand how we can assist your business with its sustainability goals.