‘Throwing money in the bin’: the huge cost of food waste

What is food waste?

Put simply, food waste refers to “any food products that are thrown away as opposed to being consumed”, said Mark Hall on BusinessWaste.co.uk. Waste can be split into four categories: by-product food waste, expired products, leftovers, and bakery and packaged food waste.

Britons are “desperately casting around for ways to save money” due to the cost of living crisis, said Zoe Wood in The Guardian. Yet many are “throwing their money in the bin”, with the average family chucking away more than £700 of perfectly good food each year.

The value of food waste is difficult to digest. According to food sharing app Olio, the annual value of food wasted globally is $1trn, and weighs 1.3 billion tonnes. “Sadly, it is not an exaggeration to say that food waste is one of the biggest problems facing mankind today.”

How much food is wasted in the UK? 

A 2015 study of six countries in the European Union found that Britons were the worst offenders for food waste across the continent. And in 2018 the UK produced around 9.5m tonnes of food waste – a 15% reduction from 2007, according to a report by the House of Lords. 

“Great progress has been made”, but food waste from UK households and businesses is still around 9.5 million tonnes, said the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). The food wasted has a value of more than £19bn a year and would make the equivalent of more than 15 billion meals – “enough to feed the entire UK population three meals a day for 11 weeks”. 

During lockdown food waste “fell sharply” as people stuck at home began to “use leftovers, plan meals and freeze food rather than throw it away”, The Guardian said. However, once lockdown ended, food waste “rose again”.

The UK Government has committed to halving the UK’s per capita food waste by 2030.

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The environmental impact of food waste

Food production, transportation and rotting waste all cause release of greenhouse gases, The Guardian reported. So by cutting food waste, we “can help the climate”. 

Globally, 25% to 30% of total food produced is lost or wasted, WRAP said. And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that food waste contributes 8% to 10% of total man-made greenhouse gases. “If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third largest emitter after China and the USA.”

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/955861/the-huge-cost-of-food-waste