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£420 Average value of wasted food per UK household every year
Food waste
According to Wrap's recent report The Food We Waste, we throw away around one-third of the food we buy in the UK, of which 61% – 4.1 million tonnes – could have been eaten. That means that, in addition to the £1 billion it costs local authorities to send this waste to landfill, we spend £10 billion every year on food that is just thrown away. But if we put a stop to such waste, we could save the equivalent of 18 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year – the equivalent of taking one in five cars off our roads.
To raise awareness of the issue with Partners and customers, we are supporting Wrap's 'Love Food, HateWaste' campaign, launched in November 2007, by providing practical information both in-store and online. This includes placing prominent 'best before' and 'use by' dates on our products, recommending realistic portion sizes and developing functional packaging designed to prolong shelf life.
We aim to minimise food waste through accurate ordering and ensure any food waste we do produce is diverted from landfill. Initiatives have included working with FareShare to help to collect and redistribute surplus 'fit for purpose' products from Waitrose shops and distribute them to disadvantaged groups in the community. Unfortunately, these trials did not prove viable for FareShare and we are now exploring other ways of working with them. Five Waitrose shops are currently trialling sending their food waste to an anaerobic digestion plant in Bedford, to create 'green' electricity.
We also work collaboratively with our suppliers to ensure our quality and delivery specifications minimise food wastage. We have also endeavoured to accept food that is cosmetically imperfect in order to support our suppliers in the event of unforeseen and difficult weather conditions. For example, last year, a large percentage of the UK apple crop was damaged by hail, but we accepted the fruit for sale and communicated this to our customers.
We are also working with our farmers and growers to reduce waste within the supply chain. For example, we have been working very closely with a group of 100 banana growers in the Windward Islands to look at how fruit is cultivated and transported with the aim of reducing wastage on selection in the UK. Our initial findings have shown that wastage from shipped fruit has reduced from an estimated 40% in 2002 to less than 3% in 2008. For a high-volume product like bananas, this makes a considerable difference to food wastage and the competitiveness of the supply chain many of whom, in the case of the Windward Islands, run smaller-scale family businesses.
14 MWh 'Green energy' generated by our anaerobic digestion trial after three months
Further information
>
www.wrap.org.uk
Waste and Resources Action Programme
>
www.recycle-more.co.uk andwww.recyclenow.com
Electrical and wider household recycling schemes
>
www.waitrose.com/foodwaste andwww.lovefoodhatewaste.com
Food waste initiatives
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