Recycling & Waste Management

Food and Catering Waste Recycling

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Many councils now collect food waste, which can be recycled in several ways including: In-vessel composting involves mixing food waste with garden waste – shredding it and then composting it in an enclosed system for around 2-4 weeks (temperatures of up to 70°C speed up the process and ensure any harmful microbes are killed off. The material is then left outside to mature for a further 1-3 months with regular turning and checks to ensure quality before going on to be used as soil conditioner. Reducing food waste is a major issue and not just about good food going to waste; wasting food costs the average family with children almost £60 a month and has serious environmental implications too .The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food. Cheese is a good example – feeding and milking the cows, cooling and transporting the milk, processing it in to cheese, packing it, getting it to the shops, keeping it at the right temperature all the time. If it then gets thrown away it will most likely end up in a landfill site, where, rather than harmlessly decomposing as many people think, it rots and actually releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.