Recycling Rates

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 24 May 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:03, 24 May 2022

Well, Llywydd, Vikki Howells makes an important point there. In the waste hierarchy set out by the Welsh Government, the first thing we aim to do is to reduce waste in the first place, before we go on to reuse, repair and recycle, and reducing food waste has all sorts of other advantages beyond the narrowly environmental.

During the pandemic, Llywydd, we were able to do more to work with FareShare Cymru to increase the coverage of their work with the food supply chain and therefore to redirect surplus food. As a result, they are now supplying over 200 organisations, and we're expanding coverage further to the whole of Wales. During the month of April, I was able to visit, with my colleague Jane Hutt, a fantastic project in the town of Barry where food secured through FareShare Cymru is made available to people, who, very sadly, in the cost-of-living crisis we are facing, need to use those facilities even more than in the past.

In the previous 12 months, Llywydd, by working with FareShare Cymru, they have been able to redistribute 882 tonnes of food, which contributes to nearly 900,000 meals—food that would otherwise have gone to waste. And it's a very good example, I think, of the way, here in Wales, in which we are able to mobilise a very progressive third sector organisation and the partnerships they have with supermarkets and other businesses and local volunteers, but doing it within a framework supported by the local authority and by the Welsh Government.