Why is food waste important?

food waste

It’s important to look at the whole lifecycle of our food: from farm, to fork, to the bin. Each stage in the journey of our food draws resources from our planet and produces greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to climate change.

Watch this 5 minute video and find out why food waste is important.

If we can make sure only the food we are going to eat reaches our homes, and no good food ends up in the bin, we could save the emissions created producing that food from ever needing to be created in the first place.

Reducing the amount of food you waste is a key way to reduce your carbon footprint, save money and help tackle climate change.

The cost to you 💸

If everyone ate all the food they bought, 4.5. million tonnes of good food would be eaten rather than wasted. This could save your household over £83 a month adding up to nearly £1000 per year!

The cost to the planet 🌍

Each stage in the journey of our food draws resources from our planet and produces greenhouse gas emissions, therefore contributing to climate change.

9.5 million tons of food is wasted in the UK each year causing the same amount of greenhouse gases as 10 million cars (or 1 in 3 cars on UK roads). 70% of this food waste happens in people’s homes, meaning we can make real change and do our bit to help the environment.

Find out more about how food waste feeds climate change. 🌎

What you can do ✅

Reducing food waste in our homes is an easy first step that everyone can take to reduce their impact on the planet.

Not sure where to start?

Try a few of these simple things as part of your weekly routine and you’ll quickly see how with just a few small actions you can make a real difference both to your pocket and the planet.

Start reducing your food waste at home

Recycle and compost the rest ♻

For food waste that can't be avoided such as eggshells, coffee grounds, bones and tea bags we offer a weekly food waste recycling service in Gloucestershire. Some of this food waste can also go in your compost at home if you have one.

Food waste in Gloucestershire gets taken to Severn Trent Green Power in Bishops Cleeve to be processed via anaerobic digestion.

Take a look at our short animation that explains why it's important to recycle your food waste, and what happens to it after collection! 👇

When your food waste is collected, it gets taken to Severn Trent Green Power and put through a clever process called anaerobic digestion. Your food waste is then turned into nutrient rich fertiliser for crops and gas to power homes across the county.

If you put your food waste in your residual waste bin, it would end up at Javelin Park, our Energy From Waste facility. This is not very efficient because food waste is 70% water and therefore needs more energy to burn. Plus, you miss out on the added benefit of the nutrient rich fertiliser that is created when you recycle your food waste at the anaerobic digestion plant, which is a vital resource used for growing the food on our shelves.

For more information, have a look at our downloadable leaflet here.