Why should you Love Food Hate Waste?
Better for your pocket
£12 billion worth of food is thrown out every year in UK homes. Householders are throwing out on average £480 a year. This increases to £680 a year for families with children – or £50 every month!
Better for the environment
Food waste has serious environmental implications. Around a third of all the food we buy ends up being thrown in the bin and most of this could have been eaten.
The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.
Most food we throw away ends up in landfill sites where, rather than harmlessly decomposing as many people think, it rots and actually releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. If we stopped wasting food which could have been eaten, it would have the same impact on carbon emissions as taking 1 in 4 cars off UK roads.
What can you do?
The Love Food Hate Waste campaign shows that by doing some easy practical everyday things in the home we can all waste less food, which will ultimately benefit our purses and the environment too.
The Love Food Hate Waste website (External link) has plenty of handy tips, some great advice and loads of tasty recipes that will turn yesterday's leftovers into something really delicious.
Some food waste is inevitable. Egg shells, banana skins and tea bags are never going to be on the menu. Home composting is a great way to stop this sort of waste ending up in landfill, and our gardens will really thank us for it.
Pass it on
To strengthen the Love Food Hate Waste message we are inviting community leaders, local clubs, charities, schools or just good neighbours to become Love Food Hate Waste Champions and pass on the important messages of reducing food waste.
Why not hold your own Love Food Hate Waste party where you can share recipes ideas, tips and advice? You could even ask your guests to bring along a few samples of their own ideas?
If you would like to pass on the Love Food Hate Waste messages in your community visit the Recycle for Greater Manchester website (External link) to download a resource pack to help you with your event.
