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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the need to invest in infrastructure and technology to support food waste valorisation to reduce (1) greenhouse gas emissions, and (2) the amount of waste sent to landfill.

New provisions in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as amended by the Environment Act 2021) will require all local authorities and relevant non-domestic premises in England to arrange for the collection of food waste for recycling. Our preference is for food waste to be separately collected for treatment by anaerobic digestion which produces biogas and significant carbon savings over sending food waste to landfill.

This will help achieve our commitment for at least 65% of municipal waste by weight to be recycled by 2035, with no more than 10% ending up in landfill. It will also support our commitment to explore options for the near elimination of biodegradable municipal waste to landfill from 2028.

Government currently supports anaerobic digestion (AD) through the Green Gas Support Scheme (GGSS), which provides tariff-support for AD-produced biomethane injected into the gas grid.

Through a minimum waste feedstock threshold, and lifecycle greenhouse gas criteria, the GGSS encourages the use of waste feedstocks for biomethane production due to their significantly greater upstream carbon savings compared to sending those wastes to landfill.