Challenge
- Soil is vital to sustaining life on Earth, producing our food and sustaining rich ecosystems
- Yet in recent years soil in the UK has become heavily degraded through over-use, erosion, compaction, and pollution. As of 2023, we only have 40 fertile harvests left- yet today, 58% of tonnage of waste sent to landfill is soil
- Plastic pollution in the open environment is a huge global problem, with potentially harmful microplastics now being found in our air, water supplies and even in our bodies
- In addition, the UK generates 9.5 million tonnes of food waste every year, with food waste sent to landfill accounts for 8% of all UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and 31% of methane emissions.
Opportunity
- Organic recycling offers the opportunity to create nutrient rich compost to replenish our soils, and to reduce GHG emissions by halting our current landfilling and incineration of organic materials
- Compostable materials offer the possibility for collecting food waste, and packaging contaminated with food waste, to be organically recycled, when collected from households and business, for example, being used for caddy liners, tea bags, coffee pods, fruit and veg stickers, condiment sachets
- Biodegradable materials offer a solution for materials that are intended to be released into the open environment where they cannot be easily retrieved, for example, agricultural mulch film, bio-lubricants for wind turbines, tree surrounds and fishing gear.