Food Waste Action Week – 1st to 7th March 2021

You might not realise it but your kitchen is a battle ground in the war against climate change. Food Waste Action Week 1^st – 7^th March is an opportunity to arm yourself with the knowledge and skills you’ll need to win.

25-30% of global greenhouse gasses (GHGs) come from producing food. If we are to avoid the catastrophic consequences of a 2^oC+ rise in global temperatures, we really can’t afford to waste a single morsel. However, in the UK 70% of all food waste comes from our homes and 4.5 million tonnes of once edible food ending up in our household bins each year.

When we waste food, we’re not just discarding the food itself but also the resources invested in it; the water, fertilisers and pesticides used in growing it, the fuel used in transporting it from where it was grown to your home, and also the energy used in preparing / cooking it. When food ends up in landfill it goes on to release methane gas as it breaks down. Methane is approximately 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO₂. This wasted food accounts for 8-10% of global man-made GHGs alone. To bring down our greenhouse gas emissions, we need to take action to reduce food waste now.

Taking action to reduce food waste in your home is one of the simplest yet most powerful things that you as an individual, a household, or as a family can do to reduce your carbon footprint. It can be as easy as remembering to use a shopping list, and it can help to save you money too.

Everyone is threatened by climate change, and everyone in the UK contributes to the 4.4 million tonne problem by adding just a few grams of food waste to the bin each day. The solution is to cut food waste together; one household, one kitchen bin, and one meal at a time.

No matter how much or how little food you waste, there’s something you can get involved in this Food Waste Action Week. Find out more at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com and / or at Instagram

If you are a Leicestershire resident, you can also take part in a free online cooking course with a food waste prevention twist. See our What’s on page for details.

• If we stopped wasting food from UK homes for just one day it would do the same for climate change as taking 14,000 cars off the road for a year
• If we stopped wasting 20 million slices of bread each day from our homes, it would do the same for climate change as planting 5.3 million trees each year
• If we stopped wasting 1.2 million tomatoes each day in the UK it would do the same for climate change as planting 1.8 million trees each year
• If we stopped wasting the equivalent of 3.1 million glasses of milk each day from UK homes, it would do the same for climate change as planting 5.9 million trees each year
• If we stopped wasting 920,000 bananas each day in UK homes, it would do the same for climate change as planting 790,000 trees each year
• If we stopped wasting 1956 potatoes each day from UK homes, it would do the same for climate change as planting 5.4 million trees each year

Sources: https://outofdate.org.uk/facts/ and WRAP.