Food Waste

Food Wastes arise from households, hospitality and food services, manufacturing, retail and wholesale and agricultural sectors.The DEFRA[1] data reports 'Animal & Food Waste' at 3.8 million tonnes, with around 20% being Food Waste from Households (with around 490 thousand tonnes speparately collected in England alone in 2020).

Local Authority data[2] for England suggests separately collected food waste was 500 thousand tonnes in 2022/23 and this represented 5.2% of recycling perfromance (this excludes food waste collected with Green Wastes). DEFRA data does not capture food in residual waste or waste processed in agriculture that does not require reporting.

WRAP estimate in their most recent data[3] that around 10.2 million tonnes of Food Waste are generated for aroud 39 million tonnes purchased in the UK (around 25% is therefore wasted).

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References:

  1. UK Statistics on Waste
  2. Local Authority Collected Waste for England (DEFRA: March 2025 for annual period 2023/24)
  3. UK Food Waste & Food Surplus - Key Facts (WRAP July 2025 estimated based on 2021 and 2022 data )
  4. Managing Food Waste (Scottish Government )
  5. Beyond Recycling (Welsh Government 2021 publication)