New sorting requirements apply from 1 January, which state that all businesses that produce household-like waste must sort food and plastic waste at source.

This will greatly affect the routines in the grocery industry. This industry has a lot of both food and plastic waste, and until now has usually thrown away the expired food as it is – in packaging.

It will no longer be the law when the new requirements come into force in the New Year.

To be done in the store

– We received inquiries about what the new requirements mean in practice, and contacted the Norwegian Environment Agency for clarification. The feedback was that packaged food waste must be unpacked in the shop, says Jens Måge, expert advisor at Waste Norway.

This is what the Norwegian Environment Agency wrote: “In order for practice to be in line with the requirements of the new regulation, the waste, both food and plastic waste, must be source-sorted where the waste is generated, which means, among other things, that shops must ensure that food waste is unpacked before sorting the food waste at source. ”

Can reduce food waste

– This will require new routines in the grocery industry, and will certainly be perceived as both time-consuming and expensive. But the principle is that the waste must be sorted by source sorting where the waste occurs, which is therefore in the store. We believe that the new requirement will provide even more incentives to reduce food waste by planning the grocery store’s purchases better, and to a greater extent selling food that is approaching its expiry date at a lower price.

– Perhaps some stores will even see gains in facilitating more organized dumpster diving, so that even more food can be saved, says Måge.

SOURCE: https://avfallnorge.no/bransjen/nyheter/nye-krav-krever-nye-rutiner-matavfall-ma-avemballeres-i-butikk