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News Index |
Good food, less waste
The 'Love Food Hate Waste' campaign raised its profile at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham this month. The initiative, sponsored by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), aims to reduce the amount of food Britons throw out.
Amazingly, in the UK, we throw out a third of the food we buy. And it's not just peelings and bones that go in the bin, but good food, too. We throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year in the UK, when most of this food could have been eaten. That's equivalent to filling Wembley Stadium with food waste eight times over!
Most of this wasted food ends up in landfill sites, where it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. To reduce food waste would not only save the equivalent of 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, it would also save an average household £400 per year.
The Women's Institute (WI) is also pledging its support to the campaign. In February, the WI will launch a 'Love Food Champions' project. Supported by WRAP, members of the WI will be trained as 'champions' to work within their local communities. They will provide practical help and encouragement, enabling people to cut back on food waste. Raising awareness of this issue is key, with 90 per cent of people unaware that we waste so much food.
