An Edinburgh-based green packaging firm is launching a new service to make it easier for small businesses to recycle their food waste.
Vegware, an award-winning eco-friendly
food packaging outfit, has launched the
Food Waste Network to increase organics
recycling rates and divert waste from landfill in the UK. The free service, which will launch online in the summer, promises to provide comprehensive and up to date information on collection services and onsite recycling systems. It is for any UK business, but is primarily aimed at smaller restaurants and caterers looking for cost-effective local food waste recycling services, Vegware said. It is being introduced as businesses face another hike in their landfill tax and as part of
wider efforts by central and local Government and the
waste industry to improve waste management by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Each year, the UK generates approximately 280 million tonnes of waste, more than half of which still ends up in landfill. To combat this, landfill tax increased from £56 to £64 a tonne on April 1 2012.
Business and food wasteFood waste accounts for an average 500 grams per person in an office with no on-site catering, according to composting firm Tidy Planet. That figure rises to 1.5 kilograms per cover if there are on-site catering
facilities, and 2.5kg of food waste per cover in the restaurant and hotel industry.
According to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) there is the potential for businesses to save £23 billion through reducing waste and recycling more.
The average business could recycle almost everything and reduce costs, if it introduced
food waste recycling, says Vegware.
"Landfill is the most expensive and environmentally harmful destination for UK waste, and all businesses can save money by maximising recycling. The first key step to going zero waste is introducing food waste recycling. The Food Waste Network is a new free service to help any UK business find its ideal food waste recycling services," said Lucy Frankel of Vegware.
VegwareVegware, which was voted Best New Product in the 2012 Climate Week Awards, makes compostable food packaging and catering disposables ranging from tableware, napkins, hot and cold cups and takeaway packaging. It started mapping and liaising with food waste recycling services to help its UK customers divert catering waste from landfill.
"In the course of the research it became apparent that there was no one single source of accurate information on this rapidly-changing sector," said Frankel. "So Vegware opened up its information to non-customers to create the Food Waste Network, a free service to match-make any UK business with its ideal food waste recycling."
Vegware says companies using the organics recycling finder service are under no obligation to become Vegware customers.
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