Annie Pickering, operations director at Climate Emergency UK, looks at which councils are leading the way when it comes to helping residents reduce waste.
Following the launch of the Council Climate Action Scorecards at the end of 2023, Climate Emergency UK recently published a summary of headline figures from their final section, Waste Reduction & Food, highlighting how councils are leading the way and where improvements are needed to help residents cut waste and eat more sustainably.
The Council Climate Action Scorecards are the first-ever UK-wide assessment of all local authorities' progress towards net zero, covering up to 91 actions across seven policy sections, highlighting actions councils have done, helping councils learn from each other in implementing climate action.
Average total scores for all council types were around 30%, and the Waste Reduction & Food section average scores varied from 24-37% depending on council type (district, single tier, county and Northern Irish). However, there was a wide variety within these section scores, ranging from six to 88% – but what do these numbers mean in terms of specific food and waste climate action?
Waste Reduction and Food, one of the seven sections covered in the Scorecards, looks at how local authorities support sustainable food production and circular economy initiatives, how they promote sustainable food choices in their schools and improve their waste collection and recycling rates. Councils have limited power in shaping sustainable food and reducing waste locally. However, there are still essential actions that all councils can be taking to tackle the climate crisis, which the majority of councils are not.
Councils that scored well in this section, such as Edinburgh, Hackney and Medway, have a Sustainable Food Strategy, support community food growing and most of their schools provide at least one complete vegetarian day each week at lunchtime. Across the UK, 57% of councils support community food growing but only 24% of single tier and county councils provide at least one complete vegetarian meal in schools each week, showing how these councils are leading the way compared to most other local authorities.
Other high performing councils included Welsh councils, with the average score being 51%, compared to 32% for all UK councils. This is in part due to the high levels of recycling in Wales – all except one council in Wales recycles 60% of their waste, with four councils recycling more than 70%. Across the UK as a whole, over two thirds of councils recycle less than 50% of their waste, missing the UKs own targets since 2020.
Our Action Scorecards also give an indication about whether UK councils will meet future targets too. Current legislation requires all councils to provide kerbside food waste collection by the end of March 2026. But in 2023 we found that only 61% of local authorities currently provided this service to most homes. The next Action Scorecards will be published in June this year and we hope to see a marked increase in the number of councils providing weekly kerbside food waste recycling.
But we know that legislation isn’t enough to secure the action we need from councils. With more and more councils needing to ask for emergency funding in order to continue providing essential services, we know that there are many competing priorities alongside food and waste climate action.
At Climate Emergency UK we work to support councils to deliver further and faster climate action in all key areas, as well as calling for further funding and powers that are needed to accelerate climate action from local authorities. We recently supported the Lord Krebs Bill calling for a funded statutory duty for councils on climate action and are hosting our next Scorecards in Action event on Waste Reduction and Food on 26th February, online where you’ll be able to hear from councils themselves on how they have achieved higher scores in Waste Reduction and Food.
