This report presents the results of the 2015 Food and Drink Federation (FDF) members’ survey of food and packaging waste arisings. The main objective of the survey was to determine whether the FDF membership had achieved its Five-Fold Environmental Ambition target of sending zero food and packaging waste to landfill by (or before) the end of 2015.
- FDF has achieved its Five-Fold Environmental Ambition (FEA) target
- Quantity of food and packaging waste sent to landfill was effectively zero in 2015 (0.04%)
- 2006-15 FDF members diverted 800k tonnes food and packaging waste from landfill
FDF members participating in the latest waste survey reduced the amount of food and packaging waste sent to landfill to effectively zero in 2015 (0.04% of total waste arisings). On the basis of these results, FDF has achieved its Five-Fold Environmental Ambition (FEA) target to send zero food and packaging waste to landfill by the end of 2015 at the latest.
96.6% of the total food processed by surveyed food and drink manufacturers was sold as intended, with a further 1% redistributed to people or diverted to animal feed and the remaining 2.4% underwent some form of waste treatment. Between the first survey year in 2006 and 2015, it is estimated that FDF members diverted approximately 800,000 tonnes of food and packaging waste from landfill.
The results from this survey will help inform the activities FDF intends to take under the successor to the FEA, Ambition 2025. These include taking action further up the waste hierarchy to reduce food waste from farm to fork as well as maintaining the zero-waste-to-landfill achievement. As a signatory to the WRAP Courtauld Commitment 2025, FDF will also use the learnings to help inform their contribution to the target to reduce UK food waste by 20% by 2025 per capita based on a 2015 baseline.