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Food waste could be banned

February 5, 2010 at 2:43 pm

MPs have demanded that the government gets tough on landfill waste. They have called for much firmer targets in the near future for greater food waste recycling across the country, both in households and in the much larger commercial sector.

Household waste accounts for 9% of total waste every year, equal to 330 million tonnes, according to a report from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). The report says that the government needs to replace the “vague plans and rhetoric” that are currently in place with firm plans if we are to avoid further problems.

The startling figures from the report state that a third of all the food that we buy is eventually thrown away, equal to about 6.7 million tonnes a year. This in itself is responsible for releasing more carbon dioxide into the air than four million cars. It is now a matter of urgency that institutions, including hospitals and schools, are encouraged to compost more of their food waste to help solve the problem.

In those properties such as apartments and high-rise flats where composting is not immediately available, food waste should be collected separately from other waste and then sent to be composted or used for energy.

The committee has now said that the government should set a target of recycling 50% of household waste by 2015, and 60% by 2020, with food waste itself being banned from being sent to landfill sites.

The chairman of the committee, MP Michael Jack, said that Defra “must encourage companies to take a completely new view of waste and see it as a valuable source of raw material."

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