A nationwide scheme to provide British households with ‘kitchen caddies’ - slop bucKets for waste foods - is being considered. The plan is backed by Hilary Benn, environment secretary, with the aim to reduce dumping of food waste into landfill sites.
Benn, who first introduced this proposal in the early summer months, has suggested bans on dumping food in landfills- to be supported with more efficient recycling collection measures from local councils.
According to estimates, UK households dump a staggering 4.1 million tonnes of food every year. Instead of being recycled, the food waste joins other household waste to create 18 million tonnes of rubbish dumped in landfills annually.
Under the scheme, households would have to recycle unwanted food, and would face fines for failing to do so. The food waste is required to be placed in a special ‘kitchen caddy’, separate from the main garbage. The collected food waste will then be dispatched to specialist recycling plants, where it could be burned to create energy or generate biofuels. Food waste would constitute everything from meat bones to waste vegetables.
Banning certain material from landfill sites has worked to effectively reduce the amount of rubbish ending up in landfills in countries such as Austria, Germany, Sweden and Holland, says DEFRA- the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. DEFRA has been studying the results of a research on bans in these countries, conducted by Green Alliance.
According to a DEFRA spokesperson, a public consultation is to be held in the coming months, to discuss banning certain items from landfills in England. He added that fines in different areas would be supervised by the local councils, which would also have the right to select the equipment needed for their respective areas.
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