Let’s talk rubbish

Or rather let’s not let’s talk about food waste and the need to throw out the word Waste and replace with resource. Warning I may get a bit excited about Food “Waste” in this post🥴

Warning I may get a bit excited about Food Waste in this post🥴

In 2023 something I have long called and campaigned for locally and nationally will finally become a legal requirement to provide by councils.

Yes I am talking rubbish.

More specific Food Waste that right now for many ends up in the general rubbish bag or bin we put out for the truck to drive by and take out of sight and out of mind.

Sadly when we put that half used squishy cucumber from the back of the fridge or the left over chicken bits and bones onto the rubbish.

The bag or bin is thrown into a truck that often deposits the rubbish onto landfill sites covered and left.

But that is not the end of it.

The food rots, the items of food waste as they rot release a gas called methane, which is a very potent greenhouse gas, methane, the gas that is released when food waste rots in landfill is actually 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a heat trapping gas.

From 2023 the collection of food waste separately from general waste is forecast to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 1.25 million tonnes per year from landfill decomposing food waste.

So that’s great but what do we do with the collected food waste then?

This is we’re it gets exciting and also needs a change in the mindset of society.

Right now we still have a linear view of consumption of goods.

That starts at production of the food this moves the preparing of the food then consumption and throwing away the “Waste”

But hold on Waste is a myth what we are actually throwing away be it with food waste,

Plastics that we put out for recycling or every item we dispose of is not “Waste” it’s a resource and we need to switch from the mindset of we are throwing things away to we are moving forward resources in a circular economy.

A circular economy takes the items we don’t use or the by products of one process in the food waste case our left overs off cuts and unused food and makes them into a resource that becomes the raw materials of another user or process that feeds back into the cycle of production of products and services we use and feed into onward cycles.

So what happens to the food resource we create by putting in a bin to be taken.away on its forward journey in a circular economy?

Don’t worry you will not get the bit of bacon back on your plate you put in the bin after breakfast 🤢

Or at least not directly in the same way 👀

The food collected by councils will be taken to processing sites that use the food resource for a variety of usages.

It can be made into a compost for use in agriculture to product foods to restart the cycle of the circular economy.

It can be used in bio digesters to produce electricity and a rich fertiliser to be used on the land as part of the circular food cycle.

With the power generated used in our homes and business yes among other things to cook out dinner and again be part of the circular food economy.

The food waste also has so other very interesting options to become a big part of the food chain circular economy as well as other sectors throughout a usage and process that is been explored commercially right now here in Cumbria as a possible Green economy and circular economy industry.

But the good news is that in 2023 the change is happening and the potential is there to be evolved to deliver real world ecological and economic benefits through a circular economy delivery that right now is a linear journey that ends in landfill producing tons of 

greenhouse gas each year 😔

What we need is as well as the food “waste” collections to get started is a mindset change in society and throw out the word “Waste” and start thinking resource first.

Waste is just that a waste of resources and ultimately money.

Of course the first and foremost best option is to reduce the amount of food we need to put in a bin to be taken away.

But as we said at the start every process of making food has a by product be that from producing food we eat or from what we leave on our plate or the squishy cucumber we forgot at the back of the fridge.

It may sound strange but I am excited about the new legislation and legal requirement for councils to provide food “waste” collections because it will have massive potential and will be the start of a new mindset of what we called waste becoming a resource not landfill adding to the impact on our ecosystem.

I bet you did not know someone could get so excited about the bits of food you throw away did you 🤓