Love Food Hate Waste
Despite the UK being in recession, the average Oxfordshire family wastes around £610 worth of good food every year: enough to fund a household utility bill.
With research showing that 90% of us are completely unaware of the amount of food we waste, a campaign entitled 'Love Food Hate Waste' has been created to raise awareness of the problem and provide information on what simple steps can be taken to combat it.
Oxfordshire councils, through Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP), are encouraging residents to Love Food Hate Waste, help the environment and save money.
OWP chair, Cllr John Tanner says: "People don't realise that for every three bags of shopping we buy, one of those ends up going straight in the bin! Not only are we wasting money by throwing away perfectly good food, but we're causing a serious environmental problem."
Most discarded food currently ends up in landfill where it produces methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. By wasting food, all the energy used to produce, package, transport and store that food gets wasted too. If we stopped wasting the amount of potentially edible food, we'd make a big impact: the same as taking one in five cars off UK roads!
The main reasons for throwing away food are "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).
Paul Mocroft, OWP communications officer adds: "We'll be asking residents to make a pledge to Love Food Hate Waste. In return we'll give them a free recipe book and offer help and tips through roadshows, events and newsletters."
"We're also running a great competition where we'd love to know Oxfordshire's favourite leftovers recipes. Running until the end of March, residents have the chance to win a meal for two at the Michelin Starred Nut Tree Inn in Murcott, a cookery course, Farmers' Market vouchers and get their recipe published in a new recipe book in our competition!"
