FEEDING THE GRID: BRITAIN IS COLLECTING FOOD WASTE, BUT IS IT READY TO USE IT?

Separate food waste collections should advance England’s circular economy, but collection is only the beginning. The real test is whether the country has the infrastructure, investment and policy coherence needed to put it to work.

Jonathon Wroe, Managing Director at Severn Trent Green Power, argues that England must match its new waste collection system with the capacity to turn food waste into strategic energy.

Britain’s renewable energy debate often gravitates towards the biggest numbers: how many turbines can be built, how quickly solar capacity can expand and whether the grid can keep pace. Yet this can crowd out technologies that solve several problems at once.

Anaerobic digestion, or AD, is one of them. By processing unavoidable food waste without oxygen, AD produces biogas for electricity and heat or biomethane for the gas grid. It also creates digestate for use as agricultural fertiliser.

That distinguishes AD from other routes for unavoidable food waste. Landfill allows organic material to rot and release methane, while energy from waste recovers some value through incineration but destroys the nutrients contained within it. AD captures energy and returns nutrients to farmland, reducing reliance on imported fertiliser at a time when Britain’s own manufacturing capacity is limited.

Preventing food waste must remain the priority, and edible surplus should be redistributed where possible. But prevention will never eliminate every peel, bone, spoiled product or manufacturing residue. The question is what happens to the material left behind.

That question has become increasingly important with Simpler Recycling. Since March 2026, Waste Collection Authorities in England have been required to collect household food waste separately, diverting more organic material from residual waste and landfill.

For Severn Trent Green Power, the reform has already increased volumes sent for treatment. We recycle around 500,000 tonnes of food waste each year and expect approximately 44,000 tonnes previously destined for landfill to be diverted to our nearest facilities.

This is encouraging, but it also highlights a gap in how the policy has been discussed. Separate collection is often presented as a household recycling reform about bins, collection rounds and public behaviour. In reality, it is also an infrastructure intervention.

Once councils collect food waste separately, it needs somewhere to go. It must be transported, treated and converted safely. Plants need sufficient capacity, secure feedstock contracts and access to electricity or gas networks, while councils need confidence that treatment arrangements will remain viable.

Without that alignment, government risks creating a system that is better at separating food waste than capturing its value. Simpler Recycling will only have completed half the job.

This matters for energy policy too. Britain will need substantially more wind and solar generation to decarbonise its power system, but a system increasingly shaped by weather-dependent generation will also require storage, grid reinforcement, flexible demand and controllable energy sources.

AD can be part of that solution and, unlike some low-carbon technologies still working towards commercial maturity, it is available now. Food waste is produced continuously, allowing facilities to generate energy predictably, while biomethane can be injected directly into the existing gas grid and used without changes to boilers or equipment.

There are already more than 130 biomethane plants operating across Great Britain, producing enough gas to heat and decarbonise around one million homes. That potential could grow significantly by 2050 using feedstocks already available domestically. Every unit produced at home is one we do not need to import as North Sea gas production continues to decline.

The contribution should not be overstated. AD will not end Britain’s dependence on imported energy or replace investment in wind, solar, nuclear power, storage and the grid. But energy security is rarely delivered by one transformative technology. It is built through a diverse system in which different sources reinforce one another.

At Severn Trent Green Power, we generate around 330GWh of renewable energy each year, enough to meet the annual electricity needs of approximately 120,000 homes. Around 245GWh comes from AD, demonstrating the contribution the technology is already making to Britain’s renewable energy mix.

There is also an economic opportunity. A supportive policy environment for biomethane could unlock £70 billion in economic value and 57,000 jobs by 2050, most of them outside London.

Our experience shows that food waste is not simply a disposal challenge. It is a valuable domestic resource with the potential to support a more resilient and circular energy system.

Unlocking that resource, however, requires policies that currently sit apart to work together.

Waste policy determines how much food waste is collected and in what condition. Energy policy shapes the commercial case for electricity and biomethane. Planning determines whether facilities can be built, agricultural policy affects the use of digestate and local government finance shapes councils’ ability to procure treatment services.

Each policy can appear sensible in isolation while creating uncertainty in combination. Operators will be reluctant to invest without clarity over renewable gas support and long-term feedstock arrangements, while councils and investors need contracts that work for both sides.

Ministers should therefore assess whether treatment capacity matches expected food waste volumes, provide long-term certainty for renewable gas and ensure waste, energy, planning and agricultural policy pull in the same direction.

Food waste is not an alternative to wind or solar. It is a complementary resource that can make the energy system more resilient and the economy more circular.

Government has taken an important first step by requiring separate food waste collections. The next test is whether it can turn a better recycling system into better infrastructure policy.

Otherwise, Britain may become better at identifying food waste without becoming better at using it.