Love Food Hate Waste?

By WLR's Jenny Fletcher

‘8.3 million tonnes of food is thrown away by households in the UK every year – most of it could have been eaten’

It’s not surprising then that the government wants you to do your bit to help combat this problem by joining the Love Food Hate Waste campaign to reduce our food waste disposal.

If you’re concerned about the amount of food waste you throw away, why not use your WLR Food Diary to plan your meals in advance – eliminate waste and shed the pounds! Try it free for 24 hours. We’ve even created a 1 month plan you could follow that uses food leftovers efficiently.

Food Waste Disposal Facts:

The facts about the disposal of food waste are quite shocking:

• Wasting food costs the average family with children £680 per year
• Food waste disposal has serious environmental implications
• If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the carbon dioxide impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road.

So If We Love Food, Why Do We Waste It?

There are many reasons why we produce such a colossal amount of unwanted and unused food each year:

• We cook and prepare far too much food for the people in our household
• We don’t use food in time – fruit and veg ends up mouldy at the back of the fridge
• We fail to eat foods by the use-by-date
• We forget what we have in our cupboards, fridges and freezers

Sadly much of the food waste that is disposed of could have been eaten. It’s only the minority of food we can’t eat – peelings, cores, bones etc. That’s where the Love Food Hate Waste campaign comes in – to help us make the most of our food.

How Can Love Food Hate Waste Help?

The aim of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign is to encourage households to reduce food waste disposal. This will benefit consumers and the environment by reducing food budgets and minimising landfill and carbon emissions.

There are plenty of ways you can reduce your food waste disposal. The Love Food Hate Waste website has plenty of good ideas. Here are a few to get you thinking:

1. Reduce your portion sizes – the Love Food Hate Waste website has a tool to help you calculate appropriate portion sizes or try a Diet Plate to help you measure portions at a glance. This will reduce your food waste and help with your weight loss!
2. Plan ahead – the site encourages savvy shoppers to plan meals and shopping so that you know exactly what you will need for the weeks ahead and you won’t fall into the trap of buying too much.  
3. Stock up your cupboards – Store cupboard essentials will help you to avoid food waste by always having the necessities at home.
4. Use your fridge and freezer – freeze leftovers or products that look set to reach their use-by-date before you use them!
5. If you really can’t use your food waste, recycling is a great alternative to get rid of leftovers. If you’ve got the garden space try composting. In a few months time your old leftovers will become fertiliser to help you grow new veggies!

If you love your food and hate waste, then why not get onboard with the campaign and try your hand at recycling your leftovers? Get inventive and be confident with using those leftovers! You’ll soon see the savings – and you’ll be doing your bit for the environment too!