This can be emptied into your compost bin or council food waste bin every couple of days. A food waste caddy in your kitchen can help you to separate out your food waste for recycling and composting.For ideas, recipes and simple tips visit Love Food Hate Waste. Don't forget to make the most of your food and drink and try to avoid wasting food in the first place.If it then gets thrown away it will most likely end up in a landfill site, where, rather than harmlessly decomposing as many people think, it rots and actually releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.Ĭheese is a good example – feeding and milking the cows, cooling and transporting the milk, processing it in to cheese, packing it, getting it to the shops, keeping it at the right temperature all the time. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources. Reducing food waste is a major issue and not just about good food going to waste wasting food costs the average family with children almost £60 a month and has serious environmental implications too. It also creates a nutrient-rich digestate that can be used as a fertiliser for agriculture and in land regeneration. As it breaks down it gives off methane, which is collected and converted into biogas and used to generate electricity, heat or transport fuels. Anaerobic Digestion uses microorganisms to break down food waste, animal manure, slurries and energy crops in the absence of oxygen, inside an enclosed system.The material is then left outside to mature for a further 1-3 months with regular turning and checks to ensure quality before going on to be used as soil conditioner. In-vessel composting involves mixing food waste with garden waste – shredding it and then composting it in an enclosed systemfor around 2-4 weeks (temperatures of up to 70☌ speed up the process and ensure any harmful microbes are killed off).Many councils now collect food waste, which can be recycled in several ways including: If we all stopped wasting the food which could have been eaten, it would have the same CO 2 impact as taking 1 in 4 cars off UK roads.
Throwing away food is also a huge waste of the energy, water and packaging used in its production, transportation and storage.
Home composting is a great way to stop this sort of waste ending up in landfill, and our gardens will really thank us for it. However some food waste is inevitable - egg shells, banana skins and tea bags are never going to be on the menu. The best thing that can happen to food is that it makes it to our plates and is enjoyed.Īvoiding throwing out food that could have been eaten will save you money and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.