More InfoScotland sites:

The Planet

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

Scottish households needlessly waste £1 billion of food each year

The most detailed study of its kind has highlighted the £1 billion of food needlessly thrown away by Scottish households each year. 

This massive financial and environmental burden is described in a new report, The Food We Waste in Scotland, published on 3 September by WRAP Scotland (Waste & Resources Action Programme).

The report reveals that Scottish households throw out 570,000 tonnes of food and drink each year, most of which could have been avoided if it had been planned, stored or prepared better.  This is a loss to the average household of £430 every year.  For families with children it is higher at £550 – a significant chunk of the family budget.

Based on a survey of 1,169 homes across Scotland, the most common items thrown away were milk (31,000 tonnes), sliced bread (25,000 tonnes), fizzy drinks (23,000 tonnes), potatoes (19,000 tonnes) and ready meals or snacks (14,000 tonnes).

In addition, 96,000 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables were binned.  If these had been eaten, they could have contributed 1 billion portions of our recommended 5-a-day intake.

Half of the good food thrown out for council collection was whole and uneaten, with one in seven items still in their packaging.  At least £18 million worth of the latter was still within its ‘use by’ or ‘best before’ date.

Collecting and disposing of food waste costs councils an estimated £85 million a year.  The environmental cost is also high as a result of all the energy involved with producing, transporting, packaging and storing the food, and as a result of methane, a damaging greenhouse gas, emitted from the wasted food rotting in landfill sites.  If this avoidable food waste had been consumed it would prevent the equivalent of 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere each year – roughly the same as taking one car in every four off Scotland’s roads.

 

There are many small changes householders can make to the way they manage their food, which can dramatically reduce their food waste and put that money back in their pocket, for example, planning food shopping and storing food correctly. The Love Food Hate Waste website: www.wasteawarelovefood.org.uk offers a host of hints, tips and simple recipes to enable people to make the most of the food they buy.