Waste and recycling minister Joan Ruddock has urged comprehensive action to cut down on kitchen food waste and to determine the most effective means for doing so.Speaking at the Environmental Services Association conference on anaerobic digestion (AD) in Westminster, Ms Ruddock identified AD as her departments favoured means of dealing with biodegradable waste.Hailed as one of several innovative ways of avoiding food waste heading unnecessarily for landfill sites, AD is a means of treating organic liquified food waste through bacteria in tanks at special plants which generates a methane-rich energy-producing biogas.However great the potential of AD may be, Ms Ruddock highlighted the obstacles there are currently only three AD plants in the UK, with central government not yet convinced that it is the best way forward in kitchen waste disposal.Discussing this and other means of disposing of waste, Ms Ruddock underlined overall recycling imperatives Any future success will hinge on whether we can persuade households to recycle more, and to recycle more types of waste.She added It is usually down to each local authority to determine how best to deal with the waste in their area and make decisions that fit their own individual circumstances.Focusing on the benefits of liquifying food waste in AD, Ms Ruddocks beliefs are shared by proponents of sink waste disposal units, which similarly process biodegradable leftovers, in this case channeling them into sewage.