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Rt. Hon. Sir Alan Beith MPLiberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Berwick Upon TweedWorking for you and the Berwick upon Tweed Constituency all year roundin Northumberland and in Westminster |
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Beith asks residents and businesses to join New Year's Resolution to cut £12 billion in food waste
January 4, 2010 9:30 AM
Sir Alan Beith MP wants local residents, businesses and supermarkets to help cut food waste in 2010. Recent research has revealed that UK households throw out over £12 billion of food waste a year.
According to research conducted by the Waste Resources and Action Programme, about half of the edible food waste, nearly one third was fruit and vegetables, about a fifth was bread and cakes, and other common items were uncooked meat and fish, and unwanted ready meals. Most of the waste is sent to landfill where it rots, emitting the potent climate-change gas methane.
The majority of the waste comes from people "over-shopping", with people particularly tempted by the "buy one get one free" deals currently on offer. Supermarkets are increasingly trying to tempt to shoppers counting the pennies, with a number of multi-deals on items with which they have an excess of stock.
Sir Alan Beith MP has called on supermarkets to cut prices across the board rather than making "buy one get one free offers" on perishable items, which often exclude people living alone.
Sir Alan said:
"Given the current economic climate it's absolutely staggering that the UK throws away £12 billion worth of food every year, but what makes matters worse is that this waste is easily avoidable.
"Instead of trying to tempt shoppers with cheap 'credit-crunch' multi-deals, supermarkets could use the money they would save from scrapping these deals to cut prices across the board and help make the weekly shop cheaper for families and people living alone across the UK.
"After all, it is not supermarkets who fund these cheap deals - it is farmers, growers and other producers who are forced to produce twice as much for the same price.
"I hope Northumberland's residents and supermarkets will back my campaign to reduce food waste in 2010."
Sir Alan has also backed calls by his Liberal Democrat colleague Tim Farron MP for the Government to fund capital costs for new anaerobic digesters so that any food that is wasted can be converted into green energy. A pilot scheme by Sainsbury in Northamptonshire is running which sends send food waste for anaerobic digestion rather than to landfill.
He added
"The government should investigate the possibility of providing 'green loans' to help develop a large scale network of anaerobic digesters across the UK so that this wasted food is put to good use through renewable energy generation."
The research from WRAP says that 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink are thrown away every year, most of which (5.3 million tonnes) could have been consumed. This avoidable food and drink waste is worth £12 billion, costing on average £480 a year for every household, rising to £680 in households with children. Ending this waste would save at least £20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to taking one in four cars off UK roads.
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