Yesterday 6th March was the start of Food Waste Week, which runs until the 12th March. This is WRAPs 3rd year of the campaign. This year the focus is ‘Win. Don’t Bin.’ and it will demonstrate how valuable food is in our lives, how it unites people and how using up everything we buy saves money, time and the planet.
According to OLIO between 33-50% of all food produced globally is never eaten, and the value of this wasted food is worth over $1 trillion.
While the world wastes about 1.4 billion tons of food every year, the United States discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 40 million tons — 80 billion pounds — every year. Let’s not feel smug as we are not great in the UK either.
How much food is wasted in the UK?
- The UK throws away around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste in a single year – even though 8.4 million people in the UK are in food poverty.
- 70% of UK food waste was intended for human consumption, 30% is inedible parts.
- The average UK family spends £470 per year on food that’s binned and not eaten.
- Over one third of all food produced globally goes to waste.
- Billions of pounds are wasted each year when food is disposed of unnecessarily.
We promote two great Apps to help with food waste. You can get items for free or for a small fee from these two Apps.
Too Good to Go also has a great App for find food that might have been wasted by local business, which you can collect for a reduced price.
They have a mission to make sure good food gets eaten, not wasted. Every day, delicious, fresh food goes to waste at cafes, restaurants, hotels, shops and manufacturers – just because it hasn’t sold in time. The Too Good to Go app lets customers buy and collect Magic Bags of this food – at a great price – directly from businesses. Jaunty Goat and Hoole Food Market are even on the APP.
Too Good To Go – Business Sign up
Too Good To Go – get the app to purchase
Then OLIO connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, bread from your baker, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items, too.
OLIO – get the app – Google or App Store
Get involved in #FoodWasteActionWeek
Find out how you can save time and money.
This year WRAP are giving you the chance to win a Panasonic
microwave or one of fifty Hellmann’s Food Hampers by taking the
Win. Don’t Bin quiz
Sustainable Cheshire 