To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to increase the diversion of food waste from the residual waste stream.

As part of the current policy development on the future of recycling, my Department is seeking ways to increase the diversion of food waste from the residual stream. This includes options for extending the food regulations to cover food waste collections from non-food businesses and weekly separate collection of food waste from households where this is not already offered.

My Department also runs regular awareness raising and behaviour change campaigns focused on both the prevention of food waste and ensuring food that is wasted is put into the correct receptacle for recycling. Some of the many examples are that funding has been provided to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) for Food Waste Action Week in March 2022 and to Councils to roll out bespoke NI advertising on food waste as part of the ‘Better Recycling’ campaign in late 2021.