Executive Summary

In UK households, approximately 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink waste are thrown away each year (WRAP, 2009b). In France, 9.713 million tonnes of organic waste were found in the household waste stream (ADEME, 2007). A substantial amount of food waste, 5.3 million tonnes is avoidable through better management. Projects such as Love Food Hate Waste which involve a national scheme of events have been successful in raising awareness of food waste with a reported 137,000 tonnes prevented or diverted from landfill since 2007. Other education campaigns include Food Champions, Green cook in Europe and action at the retailer level via the Courtald Agreement. Management in the home concentrates on the role of food digesters. The Green Cone system has been trialled in several Local Authorities and has demonstrated a reduction in waste of trial participants. Over 1.5 million tonnes of food waste is, however, unavoidable and will remain in the household waste stream. For many local authorities, implementing a food waste collection provides a realistic solution for meeting legislative targets for diverting biodegradable waste from landfill and increasing recycling and composting rates. There are several operational options for food waste collections; preference is likely to depend on current operational set-up, required yields, financia