A separate collection for food waste has been successfully trialled across the UK.

Government-funded organisation WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has revealed that the majority of the UK public support the introduction of separate collections for food waste, which could lead to lower CO2 emissions and a cleaner environment.

More than 94,000 households have been involved in a nationwide trial that has involved providing them with a waste collection specifically for food waste and separate from conventional household rubbish.

WRAP’s survey revealed that 78% of residents were satisfied with such a collection service, producing between 1.1 and 2.2kgs of food waste weekly per household – meaning a total of 4,400 tonnes of food waste (equating to 2,000 tonnes of CO2) was diverted from UK landfills during the trial.

Phillip Ward, Director for Local Government Services at WRAP, said: “We throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food every year in the UK – £10 billion pounds worth – and most of that goes to landfill. Even those households that believe they aren’t producing much or any food waste are discarding on average nearly 3kg per week…we must ensure that the food waste which is produced is diverted from landfill, so that we can avoid the production of methane and other global warming gases.”

Not everyone who was approached chose to take part in the trials, with the main reasons being that they felt they did not produce enough food waste to participate, along with concerns over potential hygiene, odour or vermin issues.

However, the separate service, provided by local authorities, involves the use of caddy liners to ensure the waste food collections are clean for residents and is collected once a week – proving successful in areas where waste is only collected fortnightly.