Nearly half of UK care homes do not recycle their food waste, according to new research from Keenan Recycling.
The research also found that a sizeable majority of homes do not think of food waste recycling as a core priority, despite new legislation on the horizon that is expected to mandate that any business producing over 5kg of food waste will have to separate and recycle that waste through a registered food waste carrier service, or risk potentially hefty financial penalties.
Worryingly, over a third of care homes said they have little to no understanding of the proposed food waste legislation, while a further 65 per cent said that they are unprepared for the changes – although some two thirds of homes did at least say that they were working to gain an understanding of the legislation.
Grant Keenan, managing director at Keenan Recycling, said: “Our research found that the care sector is behind other industries when it comes to food waste recycling, which is hardly surprising considering that the sector is navigating the energy crisis, staff shortages and immense financial pressures. However, one misconception about food waste recycling is that it is expensive. In fact, recycling food waste rather than sending it to landfill can save businesses almost £7,000 per year.
“At Keenan Recycling, we have been working with the care sector in Scotland since similar legislation came into force back in 2014 and all the care homes that we work with have successfully adapted their operations to adhere with the regulations. So, the fact that businesses across the UK are already working to gain an understanding of legislation is a really positive sign and over the coming months there is a big opportunity for the sector to embrace the changes, not only to reduce carbon emissions, but to save them money, too.”
