Why
Reducing or eliminating food waste could reduce our carbon emissions by up to 10%.
One third of the planet's total food produced is wasted. The cost of growing, processing, transporting, selling and then returning it to landfill wastes a huge amount of resources (including financial) producing a huge amount of GHG emissions along the way.
Landfill emits methane which is 84 times more damaging than CO2.
How
Even if you don’t compost, keep your food waste separate so that it is visible.
There are lots of small actions you can take to avoid food waste including:
Noticing what you throw away so you buy less of it in the future.
Planning your eating and your shopping. Random, spontaneous buying normally leads to waste.
Cooking the full vegetable, root to stem. Check out Guardian Food Waste.
Composting your food waste.
Cooking smaller portions.
Reusing leftovers (instead of throwing them away).
Freezing your foods to extend their shelf life.
Supporting businesses that produce food and drink products out of surplus food, including:
Oddbox
Toast Ale
Rubies in the Ruble
ChicP
Dash Water
Use the app Too Good to Go to find restaurants, shops, hotels, manufacturers and cafes that offer near expired food at a low price.
Did you know?
In the UK, 70% of total food waste comes from households. If we all choose to compost, each household could divert 150kg of their food waste from landfill per year. Global food waste is responsible for emitting 3 times more GHG emissions than aviation.
Everyday in the UK, approximately 20 million slices of bread, 280 tonnes of poultry and 4.4 million potatoes are wasted (Guardian, 2021)
Spread the word
In order to keep warming below 1.5C we need to halve emissions by
2030. Share this action and help play a part in reversing climate change.
