Food for Thought? A UK pilot study testing a methodology for compositional domestic food waste analysis

Recent media attention has amply demonstrated the need for changes in our society regarding waste. The cost of waste is rising, European legislation is driving forward waste reduction policies and industry is being made responsible for the waste that all products make. This legislation is also driving a reduction in biodegradable municipal waste. In general there are a number of factors ranging from the media, financial and political to environmental, that are driving forward an agenda to decrease both general waste and food waste going to landfill. A necessary requirement of such an agenda is a benchmark of the current composition and scale of both general waste and food waste. Hence, this can then be used as a measure to demonstrate improvement. A measurement methodology and the benchmark data already exists for general waste. However, there is little or no previous work about the compositional make up of food waste. This paper discusses the necessity for a compositional food waste analysis and the pros and cons of various food waste measurement methodologies. Results for a specific methodology are illustrated and suggestions for a revision of this methodology are proposed.