foOd waSte recycLe

Food waste, kitchen waste, or garbage is any form of waste derived from food materials. It typically consists of vegetable peelings, meat scraps, excess or spoiled prepared food, and other discards from domestic or commercial kitchens

 

Recycling is an effective way to cut down on the use of these limited resources as well as saving energy.

 

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Food waste accounts for 24% of household. Recycling, the council can avoid potentially huge financial penalties in the coming years for sending biodegradable waste to landfill. If this do not take action now, these fines could run into the millions by 2010.

Biodegradable food waste including:

• cooked and raw food
• meat and fish (including bones)
  vegetable and fruit peelings, egg shells (if you cannot compost at home)
• dairy products (for example cheese and yoghurt)
• tea bags and coffee grounds
• newspaper to wrap food waste

Cannot use the food waste bin for:

• pet litter or faeces
• any kind of packaging
• plastic bags
• other general waste

 

When organic waste is deposited in landfill it biodegrades and has serious environmental consequences. For example:

• Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is released into the atmosphere, which significantly contributes to global warming.
• A liquid leachate is also produced that can pollute groundwater and water courses, damaging the plants and animals that live there.

Disposing of waste via landfill is unsustainable and space is running out.Like other waste, food waste can be dumped or incinerated. But food waste can also be fed to animals, typically swine; or it can be biodegraded by composting or anaerobic digestion, and reused to enrich soil. Dumping food waste in a landfill causes environmental damage. By volume, it is the largest contributor to methane gas production. It causes odour as it decomposes, attracts flies and vermin, and has the highest potential to add Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) to the leachate. The EU Landfill Directive and Waste Regulations, like regulations in other countries, enjoin diverting organic wastes away from landfill disposal for these reasons. Food waste can be composted at home, avoiding central collection entirely, and many local authorities have schemes to provide subsidised composting bin systems.