No Time to Waste. This article is part of a joint campaign by Riverford and Wicked Leeks to help people cut food waste and raise awareness.
Did you know? A third of food produced globally is wasted. In the UK, we throw away 6.6 million tonnes of household food waste; three quarters of which is food we could have eaten. The first thing that comes to most peoples’ mind when they learn this is, ‘it’s awful when you think about how many people go hungry’, or ‘what a waste of money’.
While these are both relevant, what is perhaps even more relevant given the current climate crisis, is that food waste is a huge contributor to global warming and climate change.
A third (30 per cent) of global greenhouse gas emissions are from food production, so we really can’t afford to waste it. A huge amount of energy, water and resources goes into producing, processing and transporting food, so when we throw it away or let it go off, all of that energy is wasted too.
On top of this, when food waste is thrown into our general waste and ends up in landfill, it breaks down and releases methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) for the environment.
With all of this in mind, we have made it our mission to inspire Riverford customers and beyond to become true waste warriors; to reduce food waste at home, to get more out of your veg box, and be in-the-know about why food waste matters so much, now more than ever. We know so many of you are already incredibly resourceful, but for most of us, armed with the inspiration and tools, there’s more we can do.
Over the coming weeks and months, you can expect to see waste reducing recipes and Veg Hacks, handy storage and waste tips, adaptable recipes to use up whatever you have in, and more, alongside features, education and lifestyle articles with a food waste focus from Wicked Leeks.
We’re especially excited to introduce a weekly community challenge too, No Waste Wednesdays, where you can get involved and share your own tips and recipes with other members of the Riverford community.
Ready to join us? There’s No Time to Waste.
Your article suggests that composting is good but that is still the same as landfill as the food waste still emits CO2 and methane as the material decomposes – the solution is either in-vessel composting or Anaerobic digestion as both these methods capture the gases for use elsewhere or could be part of a carbon capture setup that uprates the gas to 99% methane through screening to be used as fuel and the CO2 separated off and processed to become chalk which has a myriad of uses.
From my understanding, composting at home and material decomposing in landfill is different. It might be worth checking out this newspaper article. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ethicallivingblog/2008/apr/18/compostorganicwaste
I’ve read plenty about home composting from books and magazines which says the same as this article.
I have have an excellent book called “The Use-it-all Cookbook” by Bish Muir. My copy was published by Green Books in 2008. It has an A-Z of leftover ingredients and how to use them. My copy is very battered these days as it has been used so much. It has lots of ideas of what to do with odds and ends of fruit and vegetables, cooked and uncooked. I find this book more practical than the internet in this sort of situation.
Hi MarriedBrit, sounds like a brilliant resource to have. I think it’s sometimes a lack of imagination or knowledge that leads us to waste food, so, fun books like this are great. What’s your favourite recipe from the book? Jack
Hi Chris_Totnes, the main focus of the article is reducing food waste to start with so that the amount being composted or used for anaerobic digestion is much less. ”Compleating’ – consuming all edible parts of plants – is something that Riverford are all for, providing lots of recipe resources to help reduce waste such as these highlighted in Wicked Leeks https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/lifestyle/eating-drinking-food-waste/eating-top-crops