Bid to cut food waste

Worcestershire County Council's waste prevention team will be at the town's Sainsbury's on Monday, November 19, between 11am and 3pm, as part of the Love Food, Hate Waste campaign.

The initiative, launched nationally by celebrity chef, Ainsley Harriott, was devised after it was revealed householders threw away a third of the food they bought, most of which could have been eaten.

Research carried out earlier this year by the Waste and Resources Action Programme - WRAP - showed for every three bags of food shopping brought home, one was, effectively, put straight in the bin.

Dr Liz Goodwin, WRAP's chief executive, said: "It is sad that so much good food is being wasted needlessly.

"At a cost of £8 billion a year, it's a serious issue that not only impacts on the environment but our pockets too."

Conservative councillor, Derek Prodger, the county council's cabinet member for environment, said: "Our waste prevention team has been working hard to raise awareness about food waste reduction for some time.

"We welcome the Love Food, Hate Waste initiative and have arranged a publicity campaign to promote it.

"I hope that our communities will embrace this new message, which has the potential to help the environment and save them money in the process."

As well as raising awareness, the Love Food, Hate Waste campaign is designed to provide information on what simple steps can be taken to tackle the problem.

The research by WRAP revealed 90 per cent of the public were unaware of the amount of food they threw away. Most of the waste ended up in landfill sites, producing the greenhouse gas, methane.

The energy wasted annually on producing, selling and then disposing of the waste food was estimated to be equivalent to at least 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Removing it would be like taking one out of every five cars off the road, it was claimed.

Are we guilty of wasting food? Email clive.joyce@midlands.newsquest.co.uk with your views.