UK Food Waste Facts
UK households generate plenty of food waste which hurts the environment. This graphic highlights the scale of the problem & how we compare to those abroad.
UK households generate plenty of food waste which hurts the environment. This graphic highlights the scale of the problem & how we compare to those abroad.
Despite Government food waste reduction targets and schemes such as ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ which have aimed to encourage people to rethink the way they cook and shop, the UK currently wastes over 15m tonnes of food each year. Of the 7 million tonnes of food waste discarded from homes, nearly half is edible.
The amount of food we waste as a nation is particularly shocking when we consider the ever-increasing dependence on food banks which have seen a 4-fold increase in use since 2012.
The cosmetic standards of supermarkets should also be addressed when tackling the issue of food waste, as 20% - 40% of food headed for the supermarket shelves is discarded as it does not meet cosmetic standards. We are starting to see attempts to rectify this issue, with so-called ‘wonky’ fruit and veg now available on the shelves of several major UK supermarkets.
We’re all guilty of discarding leftover salad, fruit, vegetables and bread in our waste disposers before we do the next food shop, with the top reasons for throwing food away in the UK found to be:
It’s clear to see that with a little pre-planning before the weekly shop, we could all significantly reduce our food waste. With 2.6 million slices of bread thrown away every day in London alone, it’s high time we did!
When we waste food, we also waste water, as a significant amount of water is required to grow and produce food. It takes 100 buckets of water to produce a loaf of bread, 54 buckets to produce just one chicken breast and six buckets to produce a potato, so when you throw this food away, the water is wasted alongside the produce, causing even more of an environmental impact.
With local authorities spending over £50 million per year to dispose of food waste, consider what else these funds could be spent on. With council budgets stretched even further and roads and local amenities suffering, it’s time we tackled the issue of food waste in the UK.
