WRAP, a not-for-profit company established in the UK in 2000 to provide practical solutions for a range of waste issues, have conducted what they claim is the first comprehensive study into household food waste in the world.
Over 2700 households in England and Wales were interviewed; several weeks later, just over 2100 of them had their waste collected for analysis - with their signed consent.
The figures, when taken together, seem startling. The headline figures suggest that �10 billion pounds of food, which amounts to 6.7 million tonnes of household food, is wasted each year in the UK.
The more the figures are examined, the more suprising they become:
� 1/3 of all food purchased in households is thrown away
� 61% of this was considered �avoidable�
� 10% of food discarded is in date and perfectly useable
Taking food stuffs specifically, 4.4 million apples, 1 million slices of ham and 440,000 ready meals per day are thrown out. The report claims that this involved 18 million tonnes of Co2 emissions, because every tonne of food waste means 4.5 tonnes of Co2 emissions.
In a context of rising farming and food prices, the figures seem baffling. Every day it seems, there are reports of people complaining about the price of food. Farmer�s costs have spiralled, with the farm gate prices struggling to keep up.
In the developing world, food riots abound: people there spend up to 80% of their income on food: the price of food has risen by over 50% this year already, on top of a 27% rise in 2007, according to the UN�s FAO.
In the western world, food is produced, processed, transported, sold, driven home and then, 33% of the time, thrown into the bin for landfill. And in landfill, methane gas is given off, which is far more destructive to than Co2.
Fresh fruits, vegetables and salads make up the largest category of waste, according to the WRAP report, clocking in at 1.4 million tonnes per year. What this means is that an incredible 45% of salad leaves bought in the UK aren�t eaten. Even cakes are thrown out � 82,000 per day. There is some strange sort of comfort in the fact that beer fares far better than anything else � just 2900 cans or bottles of beer are chucked each day.
One positive from the report was the finding that almost 70% of those who took their own notes on the food wasted were prepared to do something about it.
There has been some controversy about the research, however.
For one thing, 2/3 of food waste in the UK is produced by the non-householder, yet the publicity and campaign has focused primarily on the householder. While the lovefood hate waste campaign has plenty of handy tips (see below and the link), the householder is not actually the main problem as regards food waste.
In total, 20 million tonnes of food waste is produced annually in the UK, with the producers, processors, instuitutions, retailers and others involved outside the household accounting for 13 million tonnes.
As Alex Renton pointed out in the Times: �There's a glaring gap in the WRAP report. It doesn't mention how much food is wasted before it comes into our homes... the supermarkets waste food far more lavishly and for much worse reasons than we poor house-spouses. They over-order fresh produce because they can pass the costs of disposal back to the supplier. They reject up to 60 per cent of perfectly good vegetables because they do not fit exact shape and quality standards. They bully us with daft use-by dates. And, worst of all, in meat processing as much as a third of the edible tissue of animals is discarded because it doesn't meet the supermarkets' narrow definitions of the sellable�.
There is a lot of sense in this: Honey may be fairly unique in its keeping qualities - in 1800, honey was eaten by its discoverers in a pyramid - yet pure Irish honey has a use by date on it that stretches no more than a couple of years down the line.
Across the western world, there has been a trend towards the individualisation of guilt. Blaming the individual fits in far better with the way politics and the economy work these days.
Here in Ireland, so many environmental campaigns have this sort of focus - most obviously the Power of One Campaign.
This approach lets the main culprits off the hook: if you can get away with shifting the primary blame onto the individual for waste created, then business can be encouraged to adopt voluntary codes of practice and look for wiggle room behind closed doors.
At the same time, the state can technically lower taxes but then also introduce charges like the �bin tax�, which effect poorer people, and people with bigger families more. And poorer people often have bigger families with few if any composting options, to compound their situation.
It is clear that all players in the global agri-food system need to step up, not just the householder. Farming and food processing by-products can be an asset for use in a range of products including animal feeds, fibres, biofuels and thickening agents; technology transfer can help the developing world reduce its waste � 40% of produced food in the developing world doesn�t reach the consumer due to inadequacies in processing, distribution and storage.
In the UK, the charity FareShare takes companies� surplus and waste and distributes it as edible food through a community network of over 500 organisations that help disadvantaged people.
According to a Food Navigator report, this meant that �FareShare helped save 2,000 tonnes of edible food from landfill, providing meals for 3.3m people. This in turn meant 13,000 tonnes less carbon dioxide was emitted into the environment�.
But just how applicable are the UK�s facts, acts and figures to the Irish situation? There are important similarities and differences: Ireland has a lower population density, but is relatively similar in terms of eating habits and multiple retailer penetration.
As in the case almost everywhere else, there is no specific standalone research into food waste here. However, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Environmental Protection Agency do have both stats and targets on what is called biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) � decomposable waste including food, garden, paper, cardboard, textile and wood wastes.
According to the EPA, BMW in 2006 totalled 2,279,550 tonnes. BMW thus made up 74% of all waste (which totalled 3.1 million tonnes), while the food and garden waste component of this totalled just under 820,000 tonnes, or 36%. This �biowaste� figure of 36% includes both domestic and commercial waste.
Overall, this c.2.28 million tonne figure represents an increase of about 177% of the amount generated in 1995. There has been but a 3% increase in the diversion rates from landfill from 2005 to 2006.
The National Strategy on Biodegradable Waste aims to rollout segregated bins for food and garden waste, or �brown bins�. The aim is for these to be available at 40% of what are called �all suitable households� by 2010, 45% by 2013 and (a minimum of) 50% by 2016.
For homes not due to be facilitated with a brown bin, there are targets for home composting: 35% coverage by 2010 and 40% by 2016. By 2016, it is estimated that this will result in just over 330,000 tonnes of food and garden waste being diverted from landfill, which is over 10 times what is currently being done, according to the most recent (2006) figures.
All of this will require an awful lot of work, partly because of the 177% increase in waste outlined above.
The Environmental Protection Agency is managing the National Waste Prevention Programme.
When I asked the EPA about food waste, they suggested that research is currently being conducted (called STRIVE) but it will not provide the level of food specific detail the WRAP report in the UK has.
They also pointed out some of what�s being done in particular sectors: �We fund a major hotels sectoral project called Green Hospitality Award�(which) provides them with expertise, know-how and assessments of their resource use and waste generation, including waste from kitchens and catering. Over 150 of the biggest hotels in Ireland have signed up already. We would hope to expand this project into the general restaurant and contract catering areas with a view to reducing the generation of food waste, and its disposal, in these sectors.�
They also pointed out that there are local authority supports and initiatives, the Green Schools project and the An Taisce new Green Homes Project, the latter of which is supported by the National Waste Prevention Programme.
This is all very well, but there is a lot more still, in those famous words a lot more to do. Waste generation levels, policy and planning issues may of course alter both the predictions and targets.
The Department suggests that to reach its targets, �substantial provision of alternative treatment capacity will be required�. They also point out that �a major review of waste policy is now commencing�, which will examine the potential of new technologies such as mechanical-biological treatment.
In the meantime, why not have a look below and see what you might be able to do:
- Buy a juicer
- Get a dog
- Don�t be bamboozled by �two for one� or �three for two� deals in supermarkets
- Get a decent home composter
- When in a restaurant with a group, don�t order as individuals, order as a group.
- Grow your own vegetables (and compost the peelings!)
- Use the freezer creatively
- Go here for their food tips
- Consider joining the worldwide freegan movement. Find free food: from forages and barter to growing and bin skipping
No comments:
Post a Comment