Food is one of the largest contributors to waste in this country and every year the UK throws away around 8.3 million tonnes [1]. Producing excessive amounts of food waste not only creates environmental problems and concerns but is estimated, on average, to cost a family with children around £680 a year.
Environmental Concerns
It is estimated that about 25-30% of waste collected by household waste collectors consists of food and proportionately more food waste ends up in landfill sites than any other form of waste [2]. This produces larger environmental problems because when food breaks down and decays, methane is produced [2]. Methane is a significant greenhouse gas which stays in the atmosphere for around 9-15 years [3]. Even though carbon dioxide is often the more cited and talked about greenhouse gas, methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat over a 100 year period and this trapping of heat is what produces the greenhouse effect [3]. Methane is emitted from several natural sources but due to its heavy influence on global warming it is imperative that initiatives are established to reduce the amount that is released into the atmosphere through waste going to landfill.
New Initiative
In an attempt to reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill, new guidance will be published on ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates that are on food packaging. “Consumers will be encouraged to adopt a ‘sniff it and see’ approach to old food under the Government plans to cut waste” [4]. People have been using the ‘best before’ date to dictate when food is thrown out but under this new guidance, which is set to be published in the coming weeks, consumers will be encouraged to use it merely as guidance [4]. With goods that are deemed more perishable such as prawns, a ‘use by’ date will be used to indicate by when they should be consumed. However, with foods such as biscuits, the ‘best before’ date will just act as an indicator as to when they may be eaten by but it is by no means a definitive date.
European law states that foods must have ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates so that consumers in all EU countries know what they are eating [4]. However, Defra is aiming to make it clearer that ‘best before’ is merely for guidance and not a final date and this should help to reduce the impact that food waste has on global warming. The impact of cutting the food that we throw away could be as much as taking 1 in 4 cars off the UK roads and the subsequent savings in carbon emissions [1].
Other initiatives consumers could adopt
Home composting is a brilliant way to reduce your individual food waste and many councils now either provide or charge a small fee for a home composter. Many of the everyday food waste items that we throw away can be easily composted. For example, items such as egg shells, tea bags and leaves, fruit peelings and coffee grounds can all be recycled. It is not solely food either; you can add items such as egg boxes, cotton wool and vacuum cleaner contents along with grass cuttings, annual weeds and house plants [5]. Many councils provide a food waste collection service and helpful advice on how to and what to compost. It is a cheap and easy method to recycle your waste and provides compost for your garden in the future.
Initiatives such as the above are imperative if we are going to reduce the amount of food that we send to landfill and waste overall. However, it is important to educate people about such initiatives, giving clear guidance and ensuring that they are easily accessible.
References
[1] http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/about_food_waste (2011)
[2] The Food and Grocery Experts (2011) http://www.igd.com/index.asp?id=1&fid=1&sid=17&tid=0&folid=0&cid=298#5
[3] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2011) http://www.epa.gov/methane/
[5] Recycle Now (2011) http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/making_compost/can_i_compost_it.html
