With both Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn making recent statements about the importance of not wasting food it is clear that food waste is a key issue of waste management. Not only does food waste take up a lot of space in landfills, but when it is broken down by microorganisms it releases methane gas into the atmosphere which is actually far more harmful with carbon. Most people would believe that they could do more damage with the leftovers that they throw away than with the car that they drive. However, the same process that makes food waste potentially harmful also makes it potentially useful, as the methane gas created in the breakdown process can be harnessed and turned into energy, which not only diverts waste from landfills but offers a sustainable energy option that is far better for the environment than traditional means like fossil fuels.
One food waste collector and provider of recycling provider, Cawley’s, recently did a survey which found that nearly eighty percent of people in the United Kingdom felt that waste was as important as recycling. These statistics led Cawley’s to believe that now was the opportune moment for them to roll out the United Kingdom’s first national food recycling campaign. Cawley’s hopes to use the international attention of the Copenhagen climate summit as a means to boost awareness about this important issue as they try to collect food from citizens around the United Kingdom.
The process of anaerobic digestion allows food waste to be turned into valuable energy which does not pollute the environment.
|
|
