Love food hate waste
An innovative waste prevention campaign, Love Food Hate Waste, is being launched across Merseyside and Halton to reduce the massive amount of food we throw away.
The launch will take place at the start of the Southport Food and Drink Festival which runs from 14th-17th May.
Recycle for Merseyside and Halton is backing WRAP’s (Waste & Resources Action Programme) Love Food Hate Waste campaign, after research found Merseyside homes throw away over 130,000 tonnes of food each year - a third of what people buy and costing families £50 per month.
Visitors to the festival will receive practical tips and advice to help them make the most of the food they buy. By planning meals and making shopping lists, storing food to keep it fresher for longer, checking ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates, not cooking too much and using up leftovers in fresh meals, householders can reduce the amount of good food being thrown away. This will not only help them save money but also help the environment. If we all stopped throwing food away it would have the same environmental benefit as taking 1 in 5 cars off the road!
Councillor Kevin Cluskey, Chairperson of Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (MWDA) said: “National research has shown that a third of all the food we buy ends up being thrown away and most of it is perfectly good - it’s not just peelings, cores and bones. Effectively, the equivalent of one in three shopping bags going straight into the bin!
“Not only is a huge amount of resources wasted in the food supply chain, but most of the food waste ends up in landfill sites where it rots and releases methane, a damaging greenhouse gas, which contributes to climate change.
“Not only are the environmental implications huge but the financial ones are too – we buy and then waste around £50 per family per month on food that could have been eaten.”
During the festival, cooking demonstrations from local and celebrity chefs will take place in the Festival demonstration kitchen. Local radio presenter and Chef Simon Ross (Thurs 14th) will be demonstrating how to make meals go further and on Sunday, Tom Bridge will cook up a 'Wet Nelly', a traditional Merseyside recipe made from leftovers.
Visitors to the Love Food Hate Waste stand, situated in the Festival demonstration kitchen marquee, can pick up free information leaflets, recipe cards for leftovers, food measures and storage bag clips.
The Love Food Hate Waste campaign, launched in 2007, has already started to show positive results and helped lead to a saving nationwide of nearly £300 million, stopping 137,000 tonnes of food being thrown away. The campaign has reported that two million more households in the UK are making savings of £164 each by eating more of the food they would previously have thrown away.
Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive of WRAP, said she was encouraged by the impact the Love Food Hate Waste campaign has been making:
“At a time when every penny counts, saving nearly £300 million is a great achievement for hard pressed consumers. Food which ends up in landfill produces damaging greenhouse gases and is a terrible waste of resources. We’re delighted that the Love Food Hate Waste campaign is helping individual households enjoy more of their food, help the environment and save money.”
The Merseyside and Halton campaign has received £300,000 of funding from WRAP and MWDA and will run for two years.
The Merseyside and Halton Waste Partnership, is made up of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral Councils along with the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority.
For more information practical tips and recipes, visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
