The Scottish government has pledged to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2045 and as part of that mission, they have been recycling food waste and converting it into power. Producing electricity, heat, and gas from food waste through anaerobic digestion (AD) allows the energy stored in food to be captured and broken down into biofuels.
Iain Gulland, chief executive of Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS), calls the country’s process of recycling food waste into sustainable energy “an incredible achievement” and “welcome news for Scotland’s economy and for the planet”. He said:
Of course, some food waste is inevitable – we can’t escape waste of items like fruit and vegetable peel. This result is fantastic, but think of all the energy that can be produced from the rest of our unavoidable food waste. We are living through a climate emergency and individuals can have a great impact without even leaving the kitchen by simply using their food waste caddy.
A report published in July 2019 from Zero Waste Scotland, a government-funded body, revealed that food waste recycling in Scotland increased by 40% between 2013 and 2017 through this system. Roughly 158,500 tons of household and commercial solid food waste was collected and processed in 2017, compared with 111,500 in 2013. The findings came from the Scottish AD and biogas sector survey 2017, and the Scottish composting sector survey 2017.
This change has minimized the amount of unnecessary waste being sent to landfills (47,000 tons was sent to recycling instead) which has prevented more than 41,000 tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere, according to the data. This is because the food waste that ends up in the landfill rots and produces methane gas – one of the most damaging greenhouse gases driving climate change. The report illustrates the figure as being the equivalent of taking 22,004 cars off the road in the UK for a year or driving around the world 5,829 times.
At the moment, Scotland is overshadowing England in the war against waste as it has seen a significant increase in food recycling over the past few years with a reduction in food going to landfill, much more so than their neighbor. Philip Simpson, commercial director at food waste recycler ReFood, brags that learning from best practices in Scotland is essential for England to see improved results.
Simpson said:
This is a direct result of legislation implemented in 2012, which mandates businesses in Scotland (producing more than 5kg of food per week) to recycle their food waste. In stark comparison, food waste recycling in England is still optional despite compelling statistics demonstrating the potential of CO2 emissions reduction, the amount of renewable energy that could be harnessed via anaerobic digestion of the waste, as well as the money and resources that could be saved.
Earlier this year, proposals to implement uniform recycling collections – including separate food waste recycling – were rejected by the Local Government Association in England, despite households throwing away more than 7m tons of food waste annually. However, local authorities in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have all implemented mandated national systems, from which all three countries are all reaping financial and environmental benefits – as we can see from the figures published for Scotland.
Part of what makes a recycling system complicated to organize is that the UK has 150 different collection schemes, with many local councils locked into long-term waste contracts. The Local Government Association suggested that a move to a national system would be a “sensitive issue” for these councils because most of them would perceive it as handing over their powers to the central government.
However, Simpson believes the issue needs to be addressed, “sensitive or not”. He said:
The savings that local authorities could make by reducing the use of landfill, and the subsequent renewable energy generated from recycling of food waste, is far greater than the initial costs of implementing and rolling out a uniform food waste recycling solution.
Scotland’s progress shows the real-world impact of embracing a mandatory ban on sending food waste to landfill and highlights the positive impacts of prioritizing recycling. England has a long way to go to catch up and needs to start now.
For years now, Scottish businesses producing more than 5kg of food waste per week have been required to present food waste separately for collection. In addition, 80% of Scottish households now have access to food waste recycling, which is marvelous.
Environment secretary Roseanna Cunningham added:
Scotland’s response to the global climate emergency must be a shared, national endeavor. We all need to do our bit to safeguard the planet for future generations – and reducing and recycling food waste is an easy but important way to do just this.
