The food we waste

In May 2008, WRAP published a report saying that the cost of needlessly wasted food to UK households is £10 billion a year, £2 billion higher than previously estimated. The report finds that we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year, when most of this food could have been eaten. It says that stopping the waste of good food could avoid 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents from being emitted each year – the same as taking 1 in 5 cars off of UK roads (NB – unless, one might add, we decide to spend the money saved on new i-pods or shoes). By volume, the food we waste the most is the potato while the food that is bought and then thrown away uneaten in the greatest proportion is salad; in the UK 45% by weight of all purchased salad is thrown away (60% by cost). To read the press release see here and for the summary and full report (237 pages) see here.

Added: 07.05.08

In April 2008, WRAP published an interim report entitled: Helping consumers reduce fruit and vegetable waste.

The report is co-written by WRAP and East Malling Research and places strong emphasis on more refrigeration.

Modern Waste Ltd, The University of Birmingham and EKB Technology Ltd have collaborated to form Biowaste2energy Ltd Biowaste2energy. This new company will develop and commercialise a waste to energy technology developed at the University of Birmingham and at an Oxford university spin-out, EKB Technology Ltd. The technology combines a two stage fermentation process with patented novel membrane separation technology to convert organic wastes into economic quantities of hydrogen. Initially targeting sugary food wastes, Biowaste2energy aims to develop the technology to handle a number of different waste streams including mixed food waste. For more information, see the press release here.

You may be interested in a new report funded by the Veolia Trust (this trust supports community projects through money available from the Landfill Communities Fund, and is run by Veolia Environmental Services which provides waste services). The report looks at how much potentially edible food might be diverted from from supply chain waste for use by organisations such as Fareshare. You can read the report here.

East Malling Research (EMR) is leading a new project supported by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) that aims to help consumers reduce their fresh fruit and vegetable food waste. About 40 per cent of edible food thrown away is fresh produce.

The project will provide unique data on fresh fruit and vegetables storage and wastage in the home and how the consumer can use simple methods to prolong freshness. This will be achieved by:

• Gaining information from consumers on how they currently manage the storage of fresh fruit and vegetables in the home and on the types of products that are commonly wasted and the reason for rejection.
• Assembling an easy to understand scale of relative perishability for different types of fruits and vegetables, to aid the consumer with best storage practice.
• Developing and testing simple methods to prolong the freshness of fruit and vegetables in the home.
• Reviewing the advice given by the major retailers to consumers about storage of fresh fruit and vegetables and suggesting improvements
• Providing information to WRAP and retailers to advise consumers about methods to ensure they consume a higher proportion of the products they purchase.

You can read the press release here.

• intensive promotion of home composting as a means of diverting appropriate biowastes from landfill at the lowest cost
• where kerbside garden waste collection services are provided they should be designed so as minimise the potential for attracting additional waste into the collection system. A number of measure are available to local authorities
• separate collection of food wastes using efficient and lower-cost approaches so as to allow weekly collections at acceptable cost
• provision of containers (kitchen caddies and kerbside containers) to make the separation of food waste easy for residents and to encourage them to take part in the service
• close consideration to matching the method of collection to the treatment system being operated. AD and in-vessel composting could both be valuable with AD bringing the higher environmental benefits.

Copies of this report are available from WRAP's website and the appendices are available here.

See the FCRN Annika Carlsson-Kanyama page for more details of this study.

• Identify the factors behind waste - tempted by marketing, buying for specific recipes or occasions, not planning weekly menu, shelf life expiring
• Ascertain what shoppers are doing to reduce waste and what they
  would like
• Identify ways in which food waste can be reduced and how industry
  can help facilitate this
• Understand consumer attitudes to industry solutions which can help to reduce waste e.g. resealable packaging, time temperature indicators, reduced portion sizes.

The report costs upwards of £425. Click here for more information.

See also this useful overview presentation: The reduction of household food waste, Andrew Parry, WRAP, March 2007.

The WRAP website publishes a number of other presentations and reports of relevance to food waste. In particular see the presentations given at a WRAP event specifically focusing on food waste here.

It is also worth searching the WRAP publications pages (type in food waste) for more.

The other report House Food Wastage in Turkey looks at how much food is wasted, how this varies by socio-economic bracket, what foods are wasted, and at which stage the food is wasted (aquisition, food preparation, food serving, plate waste).

In May 2008, the Local Government Association published its second investigation into the weight of retailer packaging. It finds that most major retailers have cut the amount of packaging they use but the proportion that is recyclable has changed very little. In the first survey, carried out in October last year, up to 40% of packaging in a regular household shopping basket could not be recycled. The most recent survey showed that that figure has fallen by just 2%. The average weight of packaging has dropped by 5%. The survey also finds that supermarkets still produce more packaging than smaller shops and markets and less of it can be recycled. To read the press release and download the survey see here.

In October 2007 the Local Government Association published a survey finding that up to 40% of packaging in a typical supermarket shopping basket cannot be recycled. The research, undertaken by BMRB Social Research assessed a range of common food items from eight retailers and compared them with equivalent purchases from local retailers and market traders.

An FCRN Summary is available here.

You can read the press release here. The report itself costs 20 Euros for an e-copy.

For an alternative view see this FCRN entry.

Published by WRAP in June 2008, this report looks at refill systems and their waste management implications. It examines a number of possible products (food and non-food) suitable for refillable packaging and looks at the potential for using a range of different pack types. It discusses the advantages, disadvantages and potential commercial benefits for these different options, to make a case to retailers that such systems are commercially feasible. The report also identifies potential barriers and constraints to the wider implementation of refill systems in the UK and proposes solutions that may overcome or mitigate these barriers and constraints.

The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has announced the results of the first UK study into the carbon impact of bottling wine in the UK in glass and PET bottles. The report looks at the carbon impact of 75cl glass and PET wine bottles and how significant reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) can be made through lightweighting and increasing the recycled content of bottles.

An FCRN Summary is available here.

The report's co-authors, Professor Ken Peattie of Cardiff's BRASS centre, and Ben Shaw from the Policy Studies Institute argue that while recycling rates have risen, and the UK is on schedule to meet EU targets, the key to dealing with our escalating waste problem lies in changing our buying habits and our attitudes to consumption, .

If current trends continue, the gains from recycling could be undermined by the sheer quantity of waste being generated. If household waste output continues to rise by three per cent a year, the cost to the economy will be £3.2 billion and methane emissions will double by 2020.

The report highlights projects and efforts both here and overseas which tackle different aspects of waste reduction at the production stage and in consumption. Some of these initiatives focus on changing consumer behaviour through techniques such as 'social marketing' while others adopt fiscal or regulatory measures. In particular, waste reduction needs to be tackled higher up the chain of production and consumption. "Waste reduction must be a goal of UK environmental policy, and not tackled through waste policy alone," says Ben Shaw.

For the press release see here.