As you will no doubt have seen, WRAP has officially launched the new Courtauld agreement, Courtauld 2025. This agreement is different in that it focuses on a specific material – food – instead of a specific sector as it did in the past. That means all aspects of the food chain are involved and why LARAC is one of the 100 organisations to have signed up right from the start.
The pleasing thing for me is the whole life cycle approach that this agreement takes and the hope is that really change will happen right through the food production and waste process. Obviously, local authorities are part of that chain through our food waste collection services, but this is only a small part of the new agreement. That said, 24 authorities have also joined us in being signatories including some big urban areas. Between them they cover 42% of the population so that is a great commitment from our sector.
We know that introducing new food waste systems and increasing participation in existing ones will go a long way to getting the UK to the 50% target. However, the three main targets that Courtauld 2025 aims to achieve relate to reducing food waste and the impact of food waste, moving the focus on prevention and improving production processes. This is as it should be and shows that what we do as local authorities is just one small part in a large and complex chain.
That doesn’t mean that work is not going to see how we can improve food waste collections. WRAP is currently leading an industry wide group, of which LARAC is one member, to produce a Food Waste Recycling Action Plan. The group hope to have their produced and launched by the summer, a first draft is already being discussed. Obviously, LARAC will be working in this project to take the industry as a whole forward but more importantly we are working for you our members. This means we help others in the industry understand your problems, offer potential solutions but also defend you when we feel unfair or onerous proposal are made.
So, Courtauld 2025 signals a new approach by WRAP and is no longer a sector specific agreement. That means we all need to do our bit to reduce the impact of food and food waste on the environment. After all we don’t want Hugh on our case, do we?
