I’m now back in the USSR after a great trip to England. One of the highlights of my UK visit was getting an hour with Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Environment. In that role, he heads Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
In addition to being quite down to earth, he definitely ‘gets it.’ Benn understands that sending food to landfill makes no sense, because it leads to methane (mee-thane, as they insist on calling it). And so (the) government is trying to reduce food waste.
When I asked Benn what role government has in reducing food waste and he answered that they’re raising the issue in general, generating debate on the topic, encouraging retailers to make changes and suggesting that local councils recycle food waste. And Defra fund WRAP, which researches food waste and prompts individuals to waste less.
In terms of direct action, government’s main role thus far has been the landfill levy. The £8 per ton(ne) tax on sending items to landfill began in 2008 and will rise by that same amount annually. So each year it’ll get more expensive to throw out food (and other items), creating an incentive to reduce waste. Brilliant!
And if that doesn’t work fast enough, Benn and Defra are looking at banning food waste from landfills and will issue a “consultation early in the New Year.” I’m all ears.
Comments
5 responses to ““Def” Visit”
Welcome back, Jon. It’s very cool that you had a chance to meet the secretary of state for the environment and introduce some international perspective into your research for comparative purposes. And to top it all off, you worked a Guinness reference into your post about the trip. Brilliant!
Nice one, Matt. I definitely had that ad in mind…
Hi Jonathan – it is fantastic that you had a chance to meet with Hilary Benn. He and his department have done fabulous work in recent years here in the UK and WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign is huge and is easily recognisable with local authorities adopting the images and messages for their district and county campaigns. Their website is very accessible too, with all sorts of recipes for using up leftovers, managing portion sizes and how to combat freezer fear.
The per annum increase on Landfill Tax is an amazing incentive for local authorities to remove food waste from landfill. When I started blogging about waste in Jan 2008, I believe it was just £24 per tonne based on annual rises of £3. That April, councils were hit with the first £8 increase taking it to £32 and this year that rose again to £40. When it reaches £48 in April 2010, we’ll witness a doubling of taxation in just two years. I have also heard a figure of £150 per tonne fine, for any council that exceeds their allowances. So it’s a double whammy.
Another development that is trending over here is that supermarkets are cottoning onto this and are starting to use food waste to create energy. It would be good to see more action on reducing wasteage in the first place or more diversion of surplus supply to charity organisations. As you will have most probably witnessed, some organisations are better than others at doing such things.
I am glad your visit was fruitful (no pun intended) and hope that you’re not suffering too much from jetlag. It looks like you got away just in time…there’s snow forecast this week, which can often bring our transport infrastructure to a grinding halt. Anyway, I look forward to catching up with you soon and talking mee-thane and tom-ar-toes. Wishing you all the best, Karen :-D.
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