WRc’s National Food Waste Programme is developing a sustainability assessment on the disposal of food waste via sewer.

Discussions between the Local Authorities, Wastewater companies and Government, facilitated by WRc, concluded that there needed to be systematic investigation on effects of using sewers for food waste disposal in the UK.

WRc’s National Food Waste Programme has been set up to meet this need with the collaboration of DEFRA, UKWIR and Local Authorities. Its primary objective is the collation and generation of independently verified evidence to fully inform policy decisions that all stakeholders can reach agreement on.

The first output is a sustainability assessment which is comparing the disposal of food waste via the sewer versus conventional collection of food waste in the UK.