Press Release

21.10.2019

A third of Irish businesses surveyed don’t have a food waste bin

A new survey from RED C Research* has found that despite legislation for the last ten years requiring businesses to have and use a food waste bin, 33% do not have one.

The research highlights that among those who don’t have a food waste bin, the main reasons are that their waste collector did not provide it to them (30%), they have no space for the extra bin (14%) and 10% did not know about food waste bins. Cost of collection being expensive was lower down the list of reasons for not having a food waste bin, with only 6% of the businesses surveyed mentioning it.

The main reason why 66% of businesses reported using a food waste bin were because it is the law (37%), it’s environmentally friendly (31%) and it leaves other waste cleaner for recycling (24%).

Many businesses report that they are using the weight data provided by waste collectors to examine if they are producing too much food waste (67%) and have systems in place to reduce food waste (83%).

According to the businesses surveyed, infographics of what goes into different waste bins (98%), food waste reduction toolkit (88%), online videos on correct use of food waste bins/segregation of waste (77%) would be useful to help them recycle more food waste.

Percy Foster CEO of Cré said, “The findings show that there still is a lot more work to do in the commercial sector to recycle food waste. The Government will be consulting on the review of waste policy in Ireland and these findings will contribute to this review.”

Speaking on behalf of the three Regional Waste Offices, Joanne Rourke, Resource Efficiency Officer with the Eastern-Midlands Waste Regional Office commented, “While it is encouraging that two thirds of businesses are obeying the law and segregating food waste and indeed that many of these are doing so for environmental reasons, it is imperative that the remaining one third of businesses who are not currently using their brown bin begin doing so.”

“The Regional Waste Offices and the other stakeholders are currently developing resources to support businesses in addressing the deficits and difficulties they may be encountering in segregating their waste. Sending organic waste, such as food, to landfill has been illegal in the commercial sector since 2009 and food disposed of this way actually contributes to climate change through the gases it releases while breaking down. By properly segregating organic waste, businesses can play an important part in reducing waste to landfill and mitigating climate change.”

Odile Le Bolloch of the EPA’s Food Waste Prevention Team said; “It takes a lot of resources to put food on our tables and when food is wasted, the resources used to produce that food are wasted too. This impacts climate change, our local environment and business costs. Recent EPA-funded research^[1] found that the food services sector generates over 250,000 tonnes of food waste each year with a very considerable cost in terms of resource-use and business overheads – estimated at over €300M for the hospitality sector alone. To meet this environmental and financial challenge, food businesses need to measure the food being discarded, and then take action to reduce avoidable wastage.”

“Food businesses can show their commitment to reducing food waste by signing up to Ireland’s Food Waste Charter, a national initiative led by the EPA targeting food waste in the business sector. For businesses that want to reduce their food waste or need help to get started, support is available to businesses who sign the charter, including a food waste reduction toolkit.”

Download a copy of the report RED C- Commercial Food Waste Survey – Sept 2019

ENDS

Notes:

This survey was co–funded by the Department of Communication, Climate Action and Environment, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Connaught-Ulster Waste Region, the Southern Waste Region, the Eastern–Midlands Waste Region and Cré – Composting and Anaerobic Digestion Association of Ireland.

*RED C Research conducted the research in August 2019 among the members of the Restaurant Association of Ireland, Vintner Federation of Ireland, Small Firms Association and IBEC (sample of 151 businesses).

Further information on food waste in commercial sectors and the Food Waste Charter can be found at https://foodwastecharter.ie/

^[1] https://foodwastecharter.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/CTC-Research-Report-EPA-282.pdf

For further information please contact:

Maeve Kelly

Grapevine Communications

Email: maeve.grapevinepr@gmail.com

Telephone: 087 6895930

Press Release (05.06.2018)

Cré Welcomes Opening of Renewable Heat Scheme for Biogas

On Tuesday Minister Bruton opened the second phase of the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH), which will provide operational support anaerobic digestion heating systems and biomass boilers.

Percy Foster CEO of Cré said “We welcome this initiative from Minister Bruton and we particular see the food processing sector changing their processes as it will encourage them to install biogas plants to treat their own waste and to displace fossil fuels which would have been used for heating purposes within their processes”

Details on how operators can apply for their scheme should contact Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI)- https://www.seai.ie/sustainable-solutions/support-scheme-renewable-/ (ssrh@seai.ie or 01-248-4982)

EPA Funded Research Project:

To Develop National End of Waste Standards for Quality Compost and Digestate

Cré is delighted to announce commencement of a research project on end of waste standards for quality compost and digestate in Ireland. This project is funded under the EPA Research Programme 2014-2020. The EPA Research Programme is a Government of Ireland initiative funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

In Ireland, there are no national End-of-Waste Criteria for quality compost and digestate derived from source-separated materials. In EPA licences for composting and anaerobic digestion (AD) plants, there is a quality standard as part of the licences, however in old licences the parameters and limit values vary considerably and in the recent licences the parameters and limit values have been adopted from the national compost standard I.S. 441 for compost but also for AD plants. The I.S. 441 was not developed for AD plants and some parameters are such as stability is not suitable. This has results in AD plants proposing different stability measurement. In some Local Authority Waste Permits for biogas plants, there is no quality standard specified for digestate.

This project will examine best European practices as well as quality standards in Canada, America and Australia; and propose an approach for End-of-Waste Criteria for compost and digestate in Ireland. In addition, the project will develop a quality standard for digestate and an updated compost standard, which could be used as part of the End-of-Waste Criteria.

The project findings would inform regulators and policy makers of any changes required to implement changes to quality standards in waste licences and waste permits and also what approach should be taken to develop national End-of-Waste Criteria for compost and digestate in Ireland.

During the project there will be a workshop to consult all stakeholders on the research.

ENDS

Further Information contact:

Percy Foster, percy@cre.ie. T: 086- 8129260

“DISCLAIMER: Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the material contained in this press release, complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Neither the Environmental Protection Agency nor the authors accept any responsibility whatsoever for loss or damage occasioned or claimed to have been occasioned, in part or in full, as a consequence of any person acting or refraining from acting, as a result of a matter contained in this press release.”

Notes to Editor:

“EPA Research Programme 2014–2020 The EPA’s current Research Programme 2014–2020 is built around three pillars – Sustainability, Climate and Water. More information about the EPA Research Programme can be found by visiting the EPA website where you can subscribe to the Research Newsletter. This provides news and updates about research calls, events and publications that are of relevance to researchers and other interested parties. You can also follow EPA Research on Twitter @EPAResearchNews for the information and developments about the Research Programme and its projects.”

Shine a Light – Focus Ireland

Thank you to all the Cre members who donated close to 4k to Focus Ireland – details on who donated can be found Shine a light Thank you

UCD & Cré are delighted to announce funding for a two-year research project “Agri Bio Circular Economy” (ABC Economy).

The project is kindly co-funded under the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland Research Development & Demonstration Funding Programme 2018 with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The project will be led by Dr Fionnuala Murphy of the School of Biosystems & Food Engineering, UCD. Recruitment of a full time Postdoctoral researcher will commence shortly.

ABC Economy will develop new sustainable value chains for the circular bioeconomy in Ireland by maximising value and minimising environmental impacts through cascading of biomass for production of biobased products and energy.

ABC Economy will engage with key stakeholders through project partner, Cré, and project collaborators, Tipperary County Council and Monaghan County Council, to develop sustainable value chains based on the bioresources available in each region.

ABC Economy will characterise available biomass in each region and assess the potential of valorisation processes for bioproduct and energy production in a circular economy context.

Key stakeholders (primary producer, processors, waste management companies etc.) will be engaged throughout the project to identify important resources, constraints to valorisation, and potential opportunities. Central to ABC Economy is the full supply chain sustainability analysis to examine synergies and trade-offs between using biomass for energy generation and biobased products and will highlight possibilities to minimise trade-offs by considering the impacts of circular economy principles and cascading.

ABC Economy value chains will be developed in line with key stakeholders to ensure the viability and potential uptake of these novel value chains. ABC Economy complements existing National and International research examining agri-food waste valorisation and bioeconomy development e.g. BEACON, BioEire, AgroCycle, AgriValor. However, ABC Economy advances beyond this research by incorporating holistic life cycle assessment along with market analysis and stakeholder engagement in the development of sustainable value chains for the bioeconomy. ABC Economy will be an exemplar for the development of the sustainable regional bioeconomy in Ireland.

Cré -REA Bioeconomy Study Tour to Italy on 13^th to 15^th October 2019
Cré, in partnership with Organics Recycling Group of the Renewable Energy Association and the Biobased and Biodegradable Industries Association, has put together a bioeconomy study tour in the Milan and Venetto regions of Italy to visit:
? Food waste collections systems in Milan
? Composting/biogas plant
? Novamont’s Head Quarters and Research Laboratories
? SESA’s integrated composting/anaerobic digestion plant.

The tour will allow you to learn what the leading pioneers in Italy are doing to develop the Italian bioeconomy sector. The study tour is intended to give an overview of current best-practices and approaches in food waste separate collection and recycling.

The tour has options for attending 2 or 3 days.
Download the tour programme Bioeconomy Study Tour Northern Italy 2019
 
To make a booking, please fill in the Cre-REA-BBIA Study Tour Booking Form and email contact
Sinead Clinton
E: sinead@cre.ie
T: 0861747941

Press Release 14.8.2018

Ireland ‘will lead the way’ with New Certification Scheme

for Compostable Products

The position on compostable cups, packaging and products in Ireland:

• Of the composting sites which accept brown bin material, the majority of them are accepting compostable cups/ materials which meet the EU standard EN I.S. 13432 and the remaining sites are conducting trials.

• The emergence of new compostable products on the market is a recent development and the market is steadily adapting to accommodate this new reality in terms of compostable packaging waste policy, standards and related best practice.

• Compost site owners however are concerned that products not certified to the EU Standard EN I.S. 13432 are entering the market and causing contamination in compost.

Cré hosted an industry meeting last March which brought packaging companies and composting sites together to discuss the issue of new compostable products entering the market and has since met various other key stakeholders including Minister Naughten’s officials.

Percy Foster, CEO of Cré, said “From the consultation process the industry has determined an action plan to address the compostable waste challenge. Cré is now developing an independent Certification Scheme for compostable products in Ireland, which will be launched in quarter 4”.

The proposed Cré scheme will award a logo which can be printed on cups and other compostable packaging and products to give them a clear compostable identity which will give them visibility for brown bin collection and further organic recycling in composting plants.

The scheme will provide reassurance to buyers, consumers and composting sites that a product is truly compostable in Ireland’s approved industrial compost facilities and it will also promote those compostable products that have achieved certification to the scheme. This industry initiative to be led by Cré will clearly identify which products are compostable and remove any confusion on the matter from within the market.”

ENDS

Contact:

Percy Foster, CEO of Cré

E: percy@cre.ie                                T: 086 8129260

Brown Bin Trial in Apartments

As part of the National Brown Bin Awareness Pilot in Sligo a separate project was done in June 2015 with apartments. The trial determined best practice to promote the segregation of food waste using a brown bin system in an apartment complex setting.

A short factsheet on the trial has been published and will act as a useful tool to implement brown bin collections in apartments.

The trial was kindly funded by Sligo County Council, Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Novamont and Cré.

Brown Bin Apartment Factsheet_Final

‘Bioeconomy Vital for Ireland’s Future’

Speech by

Micheal Martin T.D., Leader of Fianna Fáil

CRÉ conference

15^th March 2018

I would like to thank you for the invitation to speak to today’s conference about one of the critical elements of the bioeconomy.  CRÉ has been very effective in both building its network of members and reaching out to put your concerns on the public policy agenda.

I strongly agree with the idea that we are at a moment of truth when it comes to environmental and economic sustainability on this island and in the wider international community.  It is 21 years since the looming climate emergency led to the holding of the Kyoto Conference and agreement that urgent action was required.

Since then an entire generation has grown up understanding the nature of this emergency and increasingly engaged in wider environmental concerns.  It has also become clearer how much environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social solidarity are intimately linked.

There has been a lot of progress since then but it cannot be seriously argued that we have shown the urgency or ambition which the scale of the problem requires.

If we take Ireland’s position for example, there has been a marked reduction in the level of priority given to environmental transformation.  We have many valuable projects to point to, but we have not even begun to scratch the surface of the potential.

Ireland did respond to Kyoto and other environmental issues with significant steps.  There is no doubt that the coalition which my party formed with the Green party significantly accelerated action.  John Gormley’s waste plan in 2008 has yet to be fully realised and the climate action plan which he and Eamon Ryan led through government was unfortunately sidelined by successors.

As a result of this we are in many areas basically restarting earlier progress.

We have too often settled for low-impact evolutionary change in policies when what is required is more revolutionary.  Where once we aspired to emulate the spirit of Charles Parsons, the Irishman who opened up the world with a radical departure in the design of steam engines, we have settled for much less.

I have no doubt that we have in our country a breadth of skills and ambition to dramatically step-change our overall environmental performance, but in particular, to turn the bioeconomy from a general aspiration to a reality.  There are many examples in the last twenty years where we have succeeded in meeting major challenges.

A very good example of this is in terms of our deep expertise in the areas of biopharmaceuticals and key technologies.  Many of our largest employers did not exist twenty years ago, and those which did have transformed their Irish operations to be higher-skilled and high-valued.  This happened directly because of a decision to change policy across government to support research and innovation – to create the ability to attract, retain and grow employment even in a period of rapid technological change.  In education, new courses were created and a dramatic increase in support for advanced research was implemented.  In Enterprise, the development agencies adapted new priorities, changed their structures and expanded their skills.  It other areas, incentives were put in place, specific targets set and new ones developed when those were exceeded.

My point on this is that we should always remind ourselves that when we are talking about developing an ambitious bioeconomy this is not some vague and unobtainable objective – we have the ability to deliver on it if we have the will.

It is important to reassert the seriousness of the environmental issues facing us. From climate change to soil exhaustion to deforestation, it has never been more apparent that we need to rethink our relationship to the natural environment.

Nowhere is this more tangible than in our waste management sector. Waste is an inevitable by-product of almost every activity in our homes and businesses. In 2014 alone, Ireland generated nearly 12 million tonnes of waste. As growth has returned to trend levels, this is a figure that is, by all indications, rapidly rising. This waste must go somewhere, and there are big concerns about Ireland’s landfill capacity. In 2016, for example, emergency measures were taken on two occasions to provide additional landfill capacity. Given the considerable environmental downsides to landfill sites, as well as the appreciable amount of public opposition to them, it is just not realistic to keep building landfill sites.

To some extent, we have tackled this issue by increasing the amount of material in Ireland that is recycled. Following the establishment of Repak Ireland’s recycling rate has increased to the point where about a third of Ireland’s waste is recycled, a reasonable position in European terms with significant room for improvement.

Time and technology have moved on, however, and we must push ourselves to divert even more material away from landfill. The bio economy is perhaps the only realistic way of doing this. It is estimated that there are at least half a million tonnes of brown bin material generated in Ireland each year. Unfortunately, only about 32% of this material is recovered, with the remainder being sent to landfill.

There is no need for this. Where many people see food waste and items from the garden, we should actually see resources. Unsatisfied with the status quo, those involved in the bioeconomic sector create unlikely enterprises from unlikely raw materials. In doing this they are pointing us towards a successful and sustainable future.  They have helped to break the past idea that you could have a strong economy or care for the environment but not do both.

I have followed many of the developments in the sector.  For example the biogas facility which turns pig manure into clean electricity that powers the national grid. Still more are investing in facilities that can transform food and other organic waste into high-quality, peat-free compost. Others are in labs conducting high-end research into the potential to extract valuable chemical compounds from organic waste.  

These people are concerned not with how a given material has been handled or manufactured in the past. Instead, they are operating at the cutting edge of technology and innovation, seeking new purposes for old materials and new ways of making valuable inputs. They are fundamentally reimagining what a waste product represents. The implications of this for Ireland’s economy and broader society are huge. This is innovation in its purest form. 

In and of itself, the ability of the bioeconomy to dramatically reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfill is a crucial benefit.  It seems unlikely that we can end the need for landfill but we can end our overreliance on them. Quite apart from the environmental reasons, the hard reality is that the public is never going to change its attitude of opposing nearly all new facilities.

This opposition is not just about NIMBYism – it has a sound environmental basis too. As material in the landfills decomposes and mixes with rainwater, toxic chemicals can run into local rivers, lakes and other supplies of groundwater. This gives rise to considerable pollution issue, presenting a threat to health of humans and other forms of life relying on these sources of water. Furthermore, as organic materials, such as food and garden waste, breakdown and decompose they can release significant quantities of methane gas, one of the more potent greenhouse gases.

At a time when Ireland is already struggling to meet our greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, this is a real problem. By diverting significant quantities of organic material away from landfill, the bio economyhas the potential to dramatically reduce greenhouse emissions and to cut down on the amount of landfill that we actually need. 

There are strong economic arguments to be made for the bio-economy too. 

For the agricultural sector in particular, anaerobic digestion and composting represent ideal opportunities to manage some of the trickier by-products of agricultural activities, such as manure, while maximizing resource efficiency. Effectively, anaerobic digestion and related processes help farmers to simultaneously reduce their electricity bill while also reducing the amount of nitrates and methane that their farm emits. Given Ireland’s strong reliance on our agricultural sector, these technologies represent huge opportunities that we must capitalize on. 

Our potential gains are not limited to the agricultural sector either. Ireland’s expertise in the realm of science means that we stand to gain a lot from thehigher-value end of the sector too. Glanbia’s recent announcement that it would be investing €30m into the AgriChemWhey project, which seeks to convert by-products from the dairy industry into bio-chemicals, is a promising sign of the types of growth that are happening in the Irish bio-economy. By replacing petrochemicals with biochemical, these projects can provide huge benefits to the environment, while also vastly increasing the resource efficiency of a businesses’ production cycle. Why should a company pay to dispose of a by-product, if they can instead make this part of their underlying business model? 

There is no doubt that the rising environmental consciousness of the public will lead to a wider demand for many of these products and services. We have seen this recently, for example, through the public’s rejection of single-use non-compostable coffee cups. Very quickly, following documentaries showing the unfortunate consequences that single-use cups can have on marine life and the natural environment, consumers were spurred into action. Within a matter of months, demands for alternatives to single use non-compostable cups skyrocketed.

Many of our European peers are pulling well ahead of us in bioeconomy actions. For example, a study by the Scottish government found that reusing waste products from the Scottish whisky industry could boost the Scottish economy by £276m sterling. By 2025, it is anticipated that the Scottish biorefining sector could be worth £1 billion sterling. Across the European Union, it is estimated that the bio-economy employs about 21.5 million people and has a market worth over €2 trillion. 

In terms of the core challenges facing the sector, the separation and sourcing of organic materials remains. As I have mentioned earlier, only 32% of the potential brown bin material that is generated in Ireland ever makes it into a brown bin. This relates back to poor enforcement of our waste regulations, which require bin companies to provide brown bins to its customers. Despite regulations which require bin providers to provide brown bins to households, there is strong evidence to suggest that this is simply not happening, particularly in more rural areas. Without the raw materials, the bio-economy cannot lift off the ground. It is incumbent upon the Minister to devote more energy and resources to enforcing these rules. 

There is also a need for better education for householders and businesses alike as to the benefits of using a brown bin to dispose of organic waste. One pilot project by CRE in Sligo, for example, found that a simple educational programme doubled households’ usage of their brown bins. For a relatively small investment in these types of public awareness campaigns, we can see huge pay off in terms of the amount of raw material available to the industry. 

I welcome the publication on Monday of the Government’s long awaited policy statement on the bioeconomy.  I understand that the objective was to focus on a broad framework of principle, however it is disappointing that so few hard actions are being proposed and there is no attempt to show an urgent prioritisation in terms of funding or regulation.  Certainly the spirit of active determination shown in the 51 submission made to government and the wider public consultation should have led to a greater level of ambition.

I and my party strongly support the idea of focusing on maximising recovery, introducing preferential procurement rules for bioeconomy firms and step-changing research and innovation supports.

We warmly welcome the commitment of funding to the Bioeconomy Research Centre in UCD and for the new piloting facility in Tipperary.  However this level of investment isn’t even close to what is required if we want to stimulate the industry in the way that other industries were stimulated.

Not to make too much of a political point about priorities, but this year more public money will be spent on advertising government policies than will be spent on supporting cutting-edge bioeconomyresearch.

In fact, Glanbia’s investment in AgriChemWhey will by itself exceed the entire public investment in the sector.

All of the evidence is that the need to move to more environmentally and economically independent practices is becoming more urgent by the day.  It is one of the greatest challenges which face us.  In response we need to show genuine radicalism.

We need to move from being a minor participant to being a world leader in this field.

In the face of compelling moral demands and considerable benefits for Ireland, we cannot afford to ignore the bioeconomy. Ireland, as a nation, has had many of its greatest triumphs and victories when we have harnessed the creativity of our people and been to the forefront of innovation. This must be no different, and I look forward to helping Ireland to build a truly strong bioeconomy sector.