Veolia joins UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap

Veolia has become the first recycling and waste company to sign up to the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, as an enabling partner.
Veolia joins UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap
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To support the programme, which works across the food supply chain to help businesses reduce waste within their operations, Veolia is encouraging its customers to slash food waste and ensure surplus food goes to people in need.

The company also has multiple operations that collect food waste from households, businesses, and industrial sources.

It then recycles this waste to become compost, carbon-neutral energy, and organic fertiliser.

Veolia’s renewable energy plants currently process 250,000 tonnes of food waste to generate around 35GWh of electricity per year, enough to power 11,000 homes.

Created by the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) and WRAP, the roadmap programme aims to help companies cut their food waste by 50% by 2030 in line with Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, a global food waste reduction target.

Around a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted each year, according to the United Nations – representing significant economic, social, and environmental impact, and losses of over £20b per year.

Richard Kirkman, chief technology and innovation officer at Veolia, said: “We know that we can all help cut food waste in our day-to-day lives, and we welcome this important move to halve business food waste in the UK.

“But it’s not always possible to eliminate food waste completely, so to meet the carbon zero targets and help mitigate the impact of climate change, it is essential we collect this material and use it as a new resource for generating green energy, and produce valuable organic products such as compost and fertilisers.”

WRAP will report on progress against the roadmap’s milestones in 2022 and 2026.

This article also appears on Recycling & Waste World

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