23 Sep 2013
Speaking at the Labour Party Annual Conference 2013 in Brighton yesterday (22 September), Mary Creagh MP confirmed Labour’s intention to introduce a ban on food to landfill should they be successful at the 2015 general election.
Creagh said: “A one nation Labour government will ban food from landfill so that less food gets wasted in the supermarket supply chain and more food gets eaten by hungry children.”
In a speech full of condemnation for the Conservative’s policy on food, Creagh, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, also confirmed that Labour will insist upon improved labelling in supermarkets as well as increased levels of food regulation, boldly stating that “deregulation gave us horse meat in our burgers.”
Creagh’s speech builds upon the strong environmental stance set out by the Labour in its ‘Resource Security: Growth and jobs from the waste industries’ released this April, in which Labour singled out the waste industry as vital to boosting the economy, adding that there is an urgent need to improve packaging and design and ensuring that the UK remains a world leader in waste management technologies.
CIWM chief executive Steve Lee said: “The current debate about banning food waste to landfill highlights the seriousness of the issue. In addition to the cost to both society and the environment of discarded food that could have been consumed, the need to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill continues to be a strong policy driver.
“In the short term, we need to strengthen our efforts to raise awareness about the environmental and economic costs of food waste and ensure we have the right infrastructure to extract value from unavoidable food waste. In the medium term, we expect to see further policy measures across the UK governments to tackle this waste stream.”
To read the full transcript of Mary Creagh’s speech, click here
http://www.ciwm.co.uk/CIWM/MediaCentre/PressReleases_archive/Press_Releases_2013/ciwm_news_230913.aspx