ReFood – A Sustainable Collaboration
Big Help Project is proud to announce its partnership with ReFood, a waste collecting entity that uses innovative Anerboic Digestion (AD) technology to create a renewable energy fuel for the National Grid as well as producing biofertiliser for crops. This relationship is founded on Knowsley Foodbank’s acknowledgement of its role in creating solutions to food waste dilemmas. As Xu et al. (2018, p.1047) states, the recycling of food waste is an “essential requirement for the sustainable development of human society”. Actioning this partnership resides as the focal point of an effort to transform food waste into an environmentally protective extension of an organisation that triumphs sustainability and green thinking.
To avoid leaching of food waste into local environmental space, ReFood offers a national bin collection scheme that ensures waste is managed according to current legislation. Moreover, an adherence to policy rhetoric and ecological standards provides a transparency to this process – a factor that is recognised as a vital element in progressive environmental protection (Holmes & Clark, 2008). ReFood collects a variety of food waste (including packaged items and liquid produce), enabling a simple filtering process to occur at Knowsley Foodbank, removing a barrier to entry that may exist during sorting. In addition to this, ReFood collaborates with SARIA to offer a closed loop solution to food waste recycling, leaning into principles outlined in the Circular Economy. The duo of traceability and transparency rears its head once again here to provide a service that aligns neatly with Big Help Project’s mantra of pursuing sustainable solutions for environmental protection. This fully integrated food chain recycling method provides evidence of Knowsley Foodbank’s willingness to interact with stakeholders in the waste collection paradigm, offering a green solution to combat this issue.
Aschemann-Witzel et al. (2015, p.6471) notes that food waste is “an interlinked issue with various factors and consequences”, as such it is an understanding of this complexity that requires a dual approach between ReFood and Knowsley Foodbank to tackle the food waste issue. Refood also prevents landfill usage, mitigating against the related local ecological impacts (e.g., habitat destruction). Furthermore, the recycling of food waste into biofertiliser gives precedence for its use in the promotion of ecosystem protection, eradicating the hazardous fertilisers that can pollute fluvial systems and terrestrial bionetworks. Paritosh et al (2017) concedes that progress in AD technology can progress further with more research and adoption in business – to this extent the driver of its development lies with a willingness to increase efficacy so that the process can recycle higher volumes of waste at lower costs, a journey that Knowsley Foodbank has obliged to traverse.
Knowsley Foodbank Manager Antonia Bell has organised and established this partnership with ReFood, a testament to the forward/green thinking of staff at Big Help Project. Moreover, the work she has championed progresses the sphere of influence the organisation maintains in the environmental realm, understanding and proactively developing a relationship with external sources of ecological protection and support helps combat climate change pressures and the related local and global impacts. To ascertain ecological protection, it is paramount that these collaborations become increasingly common in organisational practice across the globe, and thanks to Antonia this has been triumphed by Big Help Project and Knowsley Foodbank.
References
Aschemann-Witzel, J., De Hooge, I., Amani, P., Bech-Larsen, T. and Oostindjer, M. (2015) ‘Consumer-related food waste: Causes and potential for action’, Sustainability, 7(6), p.6471
Holmes, J. and Clark, R. (2008) ‘Enhancing the use of science in environmental policy-making and regulation’, Environmental Science & Policy, 11(8), pp.702-711.
Paritosh, K., Kushwaha, S.K., Yadav, M., Pareek, N., Chawade, A. and Vivekanand, V. (2017) Food waste to energy: an overview of sustainable approaches for food waste management and nutrient recycling. BioMed Research International, 2017.
Xu, F., Li, Y., Ge, X., Yang, L. and Li, Y. (2018) ‘Anaerobic digestion of food waste–Challenges and opportunities’, Bioresource Technology, 247, p.1047.