Love Food, Hate Waste
Premier Foods is proud to support the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign which aims to raise awareness of the need to reduce the amount of food that we throw away, and how doing this will benefit us as consumers and the environment.
An amazing 6.7 million tonnes of food is thrown away by households in the UK every year, and most of it could have been eaten. The good news is that there are a few quick and easy things we can all do to reduce the amount of food we throw away
There are lots of potential reasons why food might not get eaten in time - our plans change, we forget what food we have in the cupboards, we forget to freeze or chill something to use at a later date, we lack the confidence or knowledge on how to use up our leftovers – which is where the ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ website can help: http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
"Love Food, Hate Waste" is brought to you by the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) which is funded by the government and is responsible for encouraging recycling and home composting. WRAP also works to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.
Some of the waste we throw away is made up of things like peelings, cores and bones, but the majority is, or once was, perfectly good food. Current research suggests that about 40% (by weight) of the food thrown away that could have been eaten is fresh fruit & vegetables (which includes potatoes).
The main reasons for throwing away food can be grouped in to "cooking or preparing too much" (for example cooking too much rice or pasta and it gets left in the saucepan or on the plate) or "not using food in time" - for example having to throw out fruit and vegetables because they’ve gone off in the fruit bowl or in the fridge, or not eating food before it goes past its use-by date.
There are serious environmental implications too. The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.
Cheese is a good example - feeding and milking the cows, cooling and transporting the milk, processing it in to cheese, packing it, getting it to the shops, keeping it at the right temperature all the time. If it then gets thrown away it will most likely end up in a landfill site, where, rather than harmlessly decomposing as many people think, it rots and actually releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
If we stopped wasting food which could have been eaten, it would have the same impact on carbon emissions as taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads.
The best thing that can happen to food is that it makes it to our plates and is enjoyed.
Avoiding throwing out food that could have been eaten will save you money and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However some food waste is inevitable. Egg shells, banana skins and tea bags are never going to be on the menu.
Home composting is a great way to stop this sort of waste ending up in landfill, and our gardens will really thank us for it. See our Home Composting website for all you need to know about home composting.
If you live in an area that has local kerbside food collection service, you can use this to collect anything you can’t eat, or home compost. It is recycled it into a good quality soil, improver or fertilizer.
Too find out more visit: http://www.recyclenow.com/what_more_can_i_do/can_it_be_recycled/food_waste.html
Premier Foods is proud to support the ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ campaign and have committed to work with WRAP to identify ways we can help them, and our customers, to reduce the amount of food thrown away.
Love Food Hate Waste is not about eating more, it’s about wasting less.
Why not visit the www.lovefoodhatewaste.com website for tips, recipes and much more.
What more can we do?
The rubbish we throw away, the homes we live in and the cars we drive all emit carbon dioxide emissions, the main green house gas to cause climate change.
To find out further ways you can reduce your carbon footprint we’ve provided links to other useful sites.
Recycle Now
When we recycle, used materials are converted into new products, reducing the need to consume natural resources and using considerably less energy than producing new products from raw materials. Recycling also reduces the amount of rubbish sent to landfill sites, there are over 1,500 landfill sites in the UK, and in 2001, these sites produced a quarter of the UK’s emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
For easy tips on how to start recycling log on to http://www.recyclenow.com/, where you’ll find useful information on what can be recyled and where, plus much more to help you recycle more!
Act on CO2
Ever wondered what your carbon footprint is? Now you can find out with the ‘Act on C02 calculator’, an easy to use tool which will calculate your carbon footprint and show you how you can tackle climate change.
Log on to http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index.html today and start reducing your carbon dioxide emissions.
Energy Saving Trust (EST)
Find out how you can make some simple energy saving home improvements, save money, improve the comfort of your home and help fight climate change by logging on to the Energy Saving Trust (EST) website: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/.
On the site you’ll also find information on power saving measures, reducing your homes carbon dioxide emissions and details on how you can get a free home energy report.
Waterwise
Did you know that waiting for the tap to run cold when filling a glass with water can waste more than 10 litres a day?
For more water efficiency facts and handy tips on how to reduce the amount of water you waste visit http://www.waterwise.org.uk/.
Together
There's lots you can do to help fight climate change today. For easy tasks and energy-saving offers, log on to http://www.together.com/. Start using your own Togetheriser to track how well you're doing.
