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Take home three shopping bags full of food and throw one straight in the bin! Crazy? Well, that's what we do here in the UK, according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme, WRAP. The organisation has carried out research showing that we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of grub every year -- or a third of all food we buy, worth £8 billion.
This is clearly not sustainable, either economically or environmentally, and this morning WRAP launched its 'Love Food, Hate Waste' campaign to make us all aware of just how much food waste we create and what we can do to minimise it. SmartPlanet went along to the launch to find out what the WRAP waste busters -- MP Joan Ruddock, food journalist Richard Johnson and celebrity chefs like Ainsley Harriott -- had to say about the matter.
WRAP explained that food waste is incredibly harmful to the environment because it creates methane, one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases, when it ends up in landfill. On top of this, there is the vast amount of energy used in production, manufacturing, transporting and storing the food.
So what can we do about it? Well, we can compost it, which doesn't create methane. Or better still, we can chuck out less food. WRAP has created a website with all sorts of tips on how to waste less food, from using the freezer more, portioning correctly and using shopping lists, to cooking with leftovers and planning ahead.
These are all rules thrifty grannies and environmentalists alike have lived to for years, but as WRAP's director, Richard Swannell says: "Although these things might sound trivial, they'll make a difference if we all do it."
The campaign is supported by the government, and MP Joan Ruddock says it will invest in projects and industrial compost systems to minimise the amount of food being sent to landfill in the UK. She did emphasise, though, that any project relies on individuals to change behaviour to be successful. Both Ruddock and WRAP's chief executive, Liz Goodwin, are convinced that people will start cutting down on food waste once they realise how much they bin. Goodwin says: "Our research showed that 90 per cent of consumers are completely unaware of the amount of food they throw away. Once attention is drawn to it, we know that people are surprised and keen to take action."
Celebrity chefs, including Nick Nairn, Richard Corrigan, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Ainsley Harriott all support the campaign wholeheartedly. Harriott said at the launch: "People come up to me in supermarkets and ask 'what should I do with this, what should I do with that' and it seems they do this because it's fashionable to be able to buy loads of different things and go home with far too much food. When I heard these staggering statistics [from WRAP], I thought 'we've gotta do something about this'. Now I'll give them a bit of information and ask whether they really need all this food."
07 January 2008 06:39pm
Great cause but shame that the photo is promoting the consumption of fish...
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Head over to our My Planet section to win lovely ethical and green prizes. If you're a SmartPlanet member, entering a competition takes just two clicks.
