Food waste Facts

Food Waste Facts

Easily Visualised Uk Waste Facts and Figures

Waste Not, Want NotRSA Student AwardsLucy Bryan-Smith

The Guardian

An average family in the UK throw away 24 meals and £60 a month, adding up to 4.2 million tonnes of food and drink a year (Smithers, 2013).



Love Food Hate Waste

50 % of the total amount of food thrown away in the UK comes from our homes

If we stopped wasting food that could have been eaten the benefit to the planet would be the equivalent of taken 1 in 4 cars off the road.

Two main reasons we throw away good food is that we cook too much or don’t use it in time.

The amount of food wasted would fill 23 million wheelie bins(Love Food, 2015).

TRISTRAM STUART

If we planted trees on land currently used to grow unnecessary surplus and wasted food, this would offset a theoretical maximum of 100% of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion.

The UK, US and Europe have nearly twice as much food as is required by the nutritional needs of their populations. 10% of rich countries’ greenhouse gas emissions come from growing food that is never eaten.

All the world’s nearly one billion hungry people could be lifted out of malnourishment on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK and Europe.

An estimated 20 to 40% of UK fruit and vegetables rejected even before they reach the shops - mostly because they do not match the supermarkets’ excessively strict cosmetic standards.

The bread and other cereal products thrown away in UK households alone would have been enough to lift 30 million of the world’s hungry people out of malnourishment (Stuart, 2015).



Hugh’s War on Waste

A third of food in the UK never gets eaten, yet 13 million people in this country are struggling to afford to eat.

A focus on getting the most out of your leftovers.

if they’re only going to throw it away later in the week, why not save them the bother of even taking it home (Fearnley – Whittingstall, 2015)?

Wrap

save costs, cut waste and reduce CO2e emissions

improve industry practice and drive sector innovation

enhance corporate environmental performance (Wrap, 2015)


The Guardian

France’s parliament has announced measures to tackle food waste by passing a law banning supermarkets from destroying unsold food.

Between them, Asda, Co-operative Food, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose – accounting for around 87% of the UK grocery market – wereresponsible for the disposal of 200,000 tonnes of food in 2013(Guardian, 2015)


Rebecca Smithers. (2013) Food waste report shows that we throw away 24 meals a month, Retrieved from http://www.theguardi-an.com/environment/2013/nov/07/uk-households-food-waste

Love food hate waste. (2015) Retrieved 21 November 2015 http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/node/2472

Tristram Stuart. (2015) Foodwaste facts, Retrieved from http://www.tristramstuart.co.uk/FoodWasteFacts.htm

Hugh Fearnley – Whittingstall. (2015) Hugh’s war on waste, Retrieved fromhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2015/44/hughs-war-on-waste

Wrap. (2015) Courtauld Commitment 3, Retrieved from http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/courtauld-commitment-3

Guardian, (2015), Retrieved 21 November 2015 fromHTTP://WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM/WORLD/2015/MAY/22/UK-TOPS-CHART-OF-EU-FOOD-WASTE

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Food waste Facts