Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to increase the number of local authorities providing food waste collections.

Local councils should make decisions on waste and recycling services including the provision of food waste collection, taking into account local circumstances, and providing the service that local people want. The Government's aim is to prevent food waste in the first place. When food waste is unavoidable the Government wants to increase the amount that is recycled. Our delivery partner, the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) published guidance in spring 2016 on how local authorities can improve participation in food waste collection services. WRAP and the food waste industry also published a Food Waste Recycling Action Plan in July this year. This Action Plan sets out 16 practical steps which industry and local authorities can take to make food waste recycling easier and more cost effective.