England's fresh approach to food waste: problem frames in theResources and Waste Strategy

Abstract

Coexisting and eye-watering levels of food abundance, waste, overconsumption and hunger are symptomatic of a broken food system punctuated by vested interests in systematic overproduction. Against that backdrop, this paper evaluates England's ‘new’ approach to food waste in light of concerns that policy-makers have framed food waste as a consumer behaviour problem, rather than a structural challenge. The Resources and Waste Strategy's acknowledgement of normalised overproduction is thus remarkable, but unexpected. However, frame critical analysis reveals how an apparent departure from preoccupations with economic growth, combined with promises of government action, obscure an ongoing reluctance to intervene against powerful interests and the causes (not symptoms) of food waste. Legislative proposals, rather than reducing surplus, shift the burden of redistributing food away from the state and retailers, on to charities and farmers. With England, perhaps wrongly, seen as a world-leader on food waste, this has implications for other jurisdictions, as well as forthcoming consultations.

Waste, marginal property practices and the circular economy

“…9. On framing, see generally Bradshaw (2020), which came to this author's attention late in this work's progress.…”

“…cannot sustain themselves without the overproduction of the industrialized agrifood system that ends up both in dumpsters and in the emergency food system" (Gross, 2009, p. 74). Nevertheless, the underlying principle clearly has broader application beyond food supply [not least because the problem of food waste requires specific and separate analysis (Bradshaw, 2018;Bradshaw, 2020;Parker and Johnson, 2019)]. In CE, there is a form of industrialised commodification; for good or for bad masquerading (or accurately representing) a drive towards a more ecologically friendly system of consumption, which needs to prevent the radical practices of (re-)using goods disposed of (or ending up at) at the margins for its own full systemic performance (Sbicca, 2014).…”

Steering extended producer responsibility for electric vehicle batteries

“…92 Carrie Bradshaw has argued that frames of waste problems, as definitional interpretations of situations relating to waste, help to understand the complexities that need to be addressed. 93 The domain of that study, food waste, positions the problem as largely behavioural. In contrast, the issues in relation to EV batteries is much more structural, since the vast majority of EV batteries will end their first life as the vehicle makes its way to an authorised treatment facility and issues such as overconsumption are not nearly so significant.…”

The circular economy and the implied terms of contract in English sales law

“…EPR is based on the idea that to minimise negative effects, producers should already consider environmental concerns in the design process of a product (Forslind, 2005). Such a strong environmental policy may incentivise producers to design their products to be easily reused, dismantled or recycled at the end of their lifecycle (Dawson, 2019; Bradshaw, 2020). This article does not analyse the EPR policy, not least because existing regulations reflecting and reinforcing the policy in the UK are mainly concerned with the allocation of cost burdens of recycling to producers to enhance recycling rates.…”