The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Food waste collections for businesses in a rural area

Food waste collections for businesses in a rural area
Food waste collections for businesses in a rural area
A telephone survey of businesses was used to inform a decision about whether a year-long trial trade food waste collection scheme for SMEs could be introduced into a rural district of England (North Norfolk). The average waste production site-1 was 8,437 l month-1 (median 4,400 l month-1; range 240- 88,000 l month-1), with food waste representing an average of 5% of the total. The encouraging outcomes from the survey resulted in a weekly collection service being offered to all businesses in the district. However, this initial interest did not subsequently translate into a sufficient number of actual customers for the service for it to be considered viable. Factors that probably contributed to the low take-up of the service are discussed. A number of requirements must be met if such a scheme is to be successful, including significant and sustained buy-in from local businesses, the availability of a licensed local site for processing the waste, a cost mechanism that incentivises the use of the service, and a collection system that is suitable for business needs while being operationally efficient.
waste management, food waste, business
International Waste Working Group
Garfield, Richard
667d59be-1af0-434b-9164-9d61fe24773f
Williams, Ian
c9d674ac-ee69-4937-ab43-17e716266e22
Garfield, Richard
667d59be-1af0-434b-9164-9d61fe24773f
Williams, Ian
c9d674ac-ee69-4937-ab43-17e716266e22

Garfield, Richard and Williams, Ian (2013) Food waste collections for businesses in a rural area. In Sardinia_2013: Fourteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium. International Waste Working Group..

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

A telephone survey of businesses was used to inform a decision about whether a year-long trial trade food waste collection scheme for SMEs could be introduced into a rural district of England (North Norfolk). The average waste production site-1 was 8,437 l month-1 (median 4,400 l month-1; range 240- 88,000 l month-1), with food waste representing an average of 5% of the total. The encouraging outcomes from the survey resulted in a weekly collection service being offered to all businesses in the district. However, this initial interest did not subsequently translate into a sufficient number of actual customers for the service for it to be considered viable. Factors that probably contributed to the low take-up of the service are discussed. A number of requirements must be met if such a scheme is to be successful, including significant and sustained buy-in from local businesses, the availability of a licensed local site for processing the waste, a cost mechanism that incentivises the use of the service, and a collection system that is suitable for business needs while being operationally efficient.

Text
263 - Version of Record
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy

More information

Published date: October 2013
Keywords: waste management, food waste, business

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 418837
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/418837
PURE UUID: 8acc2a1f-4b95-4a99-9a56-3d24cf4718e8
ORCID for Ian Williams: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0121-1219

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 Mar 2018 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:43

Export record

Contributors

Author: Richard Garfield
Author: Ian Williams ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×