Urban Data Times
London’s Household Food Waste
Anaerobic Digestion and Composting as an alternative to current waste processing techniquesBy Marina Robles and Nora Wright
Presentation Link Here!
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Presentation Link Here! -
Welcome to our website! Our group decided to research London’s food cycle system, from farm to table to when they turn to waste and are put in the waste collection system. London specifically had issues regarding their excessive incineration process regarding waste. However, one of the most significant issues surfacing is the issue of food waste. Here are a few statistics regarding both of these issues…
Focus Issue: London waste issues…
Waste disposal grows up to a million tons each year
An average household in London produces almost a ton of waste each year
64% of total food loss and waste generated in London comes from households
42,000 buses of edible food are wasted each year
751,000 tons of junk land in landfills each year
London burns a lot of their trash, recycling, etcetera, which is equal to 15 giant redwood trees
Potatoes are the most wasted food in London UK
The most thrown-away food group in the country is fresh vegetables & salad, which make up 28% of edible food waste.
41% of food is thrown away because it wasn’t used in time
28% is wasted due to personal preferences
25% goes in the bin because individuals cooked, prepared, or were served too much food
Food waste has increased even though one in five households suffer from food insecurity, according to The Food Foundation – a 60% rise in just a year.
Of the 6.4 million tonnes of food produced yearly to supply London’s system each year, only 1% is locally produced in the city. The highest number of food manufacturing enterprises in the UK is found in London, with around 2000 manufacturers (number the aries in reports). Since the UK imports around 46% of the total food it consumes, transportation methods of food into the city vary; domestic food produced is transported using trucks, but some of the imports come into the country by air and water, and they even import some things that they can grow, like potatoes. Their largest retailers account for almost 70% of the market: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, and Morrison’s. London produces nearly 2 million tonnes of food waste (over 31% of the food produced) each year. As a city, London’s agriculture is a small enterprise, with under 10% of the Greater London area being used for commercial farming, so there does not seem to be any relevant food (production) culture, at least not unique to the city. However, of the 10,459 meat companies in the UK, 16% (the most significant percentage) are in London (1,704 Meat Companies). United Kingdom reforming on waste data through the use of waste tracking. All parties involved in the waste movement chain, from waste producers to recyclers, will be covered by this new system, which is expected to launch before 2024.
London waste issues…
Waste disposal grows up to a million tons each year
An average household in London produces almost a ton of waste each year
42,000 buses of edible food is wasted each year
751,000 tons of junk land in landfills each year
London burns a lot of their trash, recycling, etcetera that is equal to 15 giant redwood trees
The destinations for London’s bulk waste are recycling(~10%), incineration as fuel to generate electricity and heat buildings (57%), anaerobic digestion (17%), composting (7%), and landfill (8%).
All food waste collected is recycled in the UK and transformed into green electricity that powers our homes or compost, which farmers can use.
Food waste is taken to a specialized facility in Milton Keynes. The food waste is turned into electricity and biofertilizer, used on local farmland to improve the soil and grow more food.
General waste is taken to an Energy-from-Waste (EfW) facility at Belvedere, where it is processed to produce electricity. It is transported by barge down the River Thames, saving thousands of lorry journeys per year and minimizing the environmental impact that waste transport has on the environment.
Sankey Diagram: Flow of food waste in London
Where can we make the biggest impact for London’s food and waste cycle?
LONDON HOUSEHOLDS
Now that we know London’s current issues according to their food and waste cycles, we need to start zeroing in on where we can find solutions!
An average household in London produces almost a ton of waste each year. 64% of total food loss and waste generated in London comes from households as well and it does not stop there nearly 2 million tonnes of food waste per year comes from London, this means that 1.28 million tonnes of food waste per year comes from London households. Although supermarkets produce a partial amount of food waste according to London’s data receipts, focusing on the household perspective will allow for us to focus on tackling the larger problem. However, by collecting food waste for households at grocery stores where a significant amount of food waste is already being produced and shipped out, by modifying the system we can reduce the amount of trips being made to recycle food waste and handle two problems, food waste for both households an supermarkets, with one modified system meant for anaerobic digestion and composting, systems that are already in place in London.
Because most of London’s food waste is caused by fresh produce and potatoes, growing your food indoors or outdoors saves money and reduces waste. However, the main targets that make the most sense regarding finding green methods
Composting is another excellent method to reduce waste, especially for the primary source of garbage is fresh produce, which is perfect for composting and can also help people who would like to switch to growing their food
This will avoid edible and nonedible food waste going to landfills and incineration and will overall lessen carbon emissions
Another method would be to process this food waste through anaerobic digestion
While anaerobic digestion would take care of most households’ food waste and process it into electricity for the boroughs, some waste cannot be processed through anaerobic digestion, and that is where composting can come into play
Both anaerobic digestion and composting are current processes that London has, which is why these systems work well for London, UK. However, we wanted to find a way to make it more personalized, accessible, and profitable to both the community of London as well as the waste and energy companies involved in the process.
This represents the recycling rates in each borough of London as well as the percentage of food waste being recycled currently in each borough.
Proposal
Why not use both anaerobic digestion and composting to target household food waste? Although specific, food waste is extremely high in London households and can be easily targeted with the correct green recycling method for waste and incentives.
Our goal is to promote a food waste recycling program where the typical household in any borough of London can drop off their food waste bin, customized by the variance of containers allowed for their borough, to any local grocery store for drop off and swap it for a clean food waste bin. As for the incentive portion, if a household were to drop off their chest at their local grocery store, staff would record entries per household, and they would be entered into a monthly lottery. Each entry is received per trip to the grocery store, where each family can have as many entries as they like. However, only one entry is allowed per trip. The more entries, the more likely the home will win the monthly lottery with varying prizes. Per borough, winners will be selected by whichever family donated the most food waste per month.
So far, our ideas for prizes include London football jerseys, pints at local pubs, tickets to football games, etc. Each borough has specific overlapping football rivalries illustrated in the map below. Prizes for monthly and yearly drawings will be specific to each borough’s football rivalries. As a grand prize, at the end of each year for this food waste incentive, one borough will win in London. It will gain the opportunity to win a grand prize for their borough, which may come in the form of a renovation or project for their borough, a new public park, even having that borough’s designated team or in the case of multiple rivalries per borough, the grocery store with the highest number of entries from the public will have the deciding vote on the football team selected for all to celebrate. There are multiple incentives and prizes for the public to win, but mainly, they will be directed towards defining peaks of London’s culture; football and pubs.
The food waste system used by each grocery store will be modified to accommodate the community food waste incentive program and will be processed for anaerobic digestion and whatever waste cannot be processed for anaerobic digestion will be used for composting in the community for local farms etcetera. The methane gas produced as a result of anaerobic digestion will be used to fuel the electricity needed to run the city. As a result, there will be an excess and profit created by this program for electrical companies. These funds will be used to give back to the city of London and will fund the prizes for the incentive.
Through these steps, the incentive program will cycle smoothly allowing the community of London to flourish economically, environmentally, and socially in the community. Now it is time to discuss how we calculated the data necessary to bring forth and research this incentive.
Estimates and Projections for Proposal
London’s Environment Strategy aims to achieve zero biodegradable or recyclable waste sent to landfills by 2026 and to recycle 65% of the city’s municipal waste by 2030. In line with these goals, this proposal seeks to have at least 50-60% (728,000 - 873,000 tonnes) of the food waste processed by AD and an extra 15 -20% (218,000 tonnes - 291,000 tonnes) of it processed by composting.
9.5 million tonnes of food waste per year comes from the UK
2 million tonnes of food waste per year comes from London
64% of food waste is due to households in London
This means that 1.28 million tonnes of food waste per year comes from London households
To get a general calculation for the percentage of food waste recycling done by all of the boroughs in London, I will be calculating the average rate of recycling between all of the boroughs
The average percentage of recycling happening each year in London is about 34.06%
30 % of waste bins are food waste for the households in London
Because of this percentage, taking the thirty percent from the median tells us that 10.22% of these percentages account for the food waste portion of this percentage of recycling happening in London, England
London would like to increase the percentage of recycling to about 50-60%, and with the current 34.06%, this food waste recycling incentive directed to the households may increase the rate by 15-20% with the motivation in the first year alone, totaling to about 54.06% recycling in the boroughs averaged out
Due to the convenience of dropping these food waste bins at the grocery stores making it less of a hassle to recycle as they can drop off containers and get groceries in one stop as well as the incentive of winning prizes once a month and once a year for boroughs participating, there is no reason for the anaerobic digestion food waste system to not produce significant results as the predictions listed in the above bullet point.
Sankey Diagram: proposal to re-distribute household waste
Why this incentive?
London Pub and Football Culture
Why the incentive? Here’s why: even though anaerobic digestion, composting, and food waste recycling are current methods moving towards a green environment in London, incentives are ways to increase the effectiveness of these methods to get people to put all their efforts towards making a change, so that they get something that they want in return. Working towards a greener environment and the common goal of winning prizes for the boroughs that build off of London’s cultural staples is a great way to build camaraderie as a community aligned towards the same incentive. The community has something to work towards, hopefully giving us the percentages needed to boost the recycling numbers in the incentive program and meet London’s goals in the next few years.