Trials suggest AWC boosts food waste collection performance

Switching to controversial alternate weekly collections could boost participation in separate food waste collections.



Food waste collection trials carried out by WRAP (the Waste &
Resources Action Partnership) found that local authorities using AWC
recorded higher participation rates than those picking up
non-recyclable rubbish every week.



One council, the London Borough of Bromley, switched to AWC during
the trial and found participation rates shot up from just over half to
more than three quarters.



Speaking at an MRW conference in London on Thursday, Chris Mills,
from WRAP's Recycling and Organics Technical Advisory Team, said:
"Statistically, with a background of alternate weekly collection, we
are finding a much higher rate of food waste collection."



John Woodruff, head of waste services for Bromley, said the use of
separate weekly food waste collections had helped to reduce public
opposition to AWC.



"If your food waste is going weekly in a separate bin, there is not
so much of a problem with the other waste, so it's an easier sell," he
said.



WRAP's food waste trials covered nearly 100,000 households across England and Northern Ireland.



The trials also found that residents were reluctant to use
collections that combined food and garden waste, and that people
throwing away out-of-date food frequently did not bother to take it out
of its packaging.



Average participation was about 62%. Of those who did not
participate, the main reasons were that residents believed they did not
produce enough food waste, they were concerned about hygiene or vermin,
or they composted at home.



David Mottershead, head of waste policy and processes at Defra,
said Government still believed that anaerobic digestion was the best
way to deal with food waste once it was collected.



"The UK needs the contribution from renewable energy that it can get through the anaerobic digestion of food waste," he said.



He added that ministers were very pleased with the widespread and positive coverage that the Love Food Hate Waste campaign had received