Bin the Waste, Not the Food: WRAP Urges Bold Action to Tackle UK’s £17bn Food Waste Crisis

WRAP is calling on government, retailers, brands, manufacturers and funders to refresh focus on household food waste through policy, changing the retail environment, and increasing public engagement to prevent food waste.

In 2022 local authorities spent around £500m disposing of food waste in residual waste. 83% of food waste was in our rubbish bins and was incinerated or sent to landfill.

Latest data from WRAP shows that household food waste decreased by 9% between 2021 to 2022.

This reduction was catalysed by two main factors: Covid-19 restrictions lifting meaning less food was eaten at home in 2022, and the rise of food prices during 2022 and into 2023, particularly up to December 2022 when food prices increased by approximately 17%.

Given this decrease, WRAP’s new estimate (2022) of the food waste from UK households stands at 6 million tonnes.

This includes food in waste streams collected by local authorities, going down the sewer and home composted.

Of this total, 4.4 million tonnes were edible food with the remaining 1.6 million tonnes inedible parts such as eggshells, bones and fruit peel.

Despite this reduction in food waste, UK shoppers are still spending £17bn on food that is thrown away, which is an average of £1,000 a year for a household of four people.

These results show that while it is possible to significantly reduce widescale household food waste in a short space of time, the UK is not on track to meet international targets (UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3).

For household food waste to meet the international targets, it must fall by 36% by 2030. Therefore, policy and behaviour-change interventions on a similar scale to these exceptional drivers are necessary. We need collaboration across government, retailers, brands, manufacturers, funders and the public to take responsibility for household food waste prevention and act together.

WRAP’s new report shows that across the UK, the amount of food waste in household food waste collections was 17% of the total – 83% of food waste is still found in the residual waste stream (being incinerated or going to landfill) rather than in food waste collections. Household food waste collections divert wasted food away from the residual stream and help people physically see what they are throwing away – making it much more real to people.

The NGO is collaborating with governments and pioneering organisations such as Ocado Retail, Tesco and Hampshire Council to invest in designing, testing and scaling behaviour change interventions that help people realise their own food waste levels, reduce it and use food recycling collections.

Brand and retailer action – WRAP found nearly 40% of household food waste happens because food wasn’t used in time. Making it easy for people to reduce food waste by helping people to buy an appropriate amount of food and store it optimally sets people up for success. WRAP is promoting key actions to slash food waste with brands and retailers including selling loose fresh produce, ensuring availability and appropriate pricing of smaller packs, and changing product labelling. On WRAP’s guidance, many retailers have removed ‘Best Before’ dates from fresh produce and swapped ‘Use By’ dates for ‘Best Before’ dates on more dairy products – slashing food waste by enabling people to use their judgement of when food is good to eat.

WRAP also recently announced a new partnership with Tesco during London Climate Action Week with a call to businesses and governments to act urgently to reduce global food loss and waste.

Waste Minister Mary Creagh said: “A reduction in food waste is welcome, and we are clear further swift action is needed across the supply chain and in households to stop perfectly good food from being chucked away. We are moving to a circular economy, where we make the best use of the resources we have as possible, and will continue to work with food businesses, producers and charities to drive down food waste. This includes supporting more good food being redistributed through our new £15 million farm surplus fund and put on the plates of those in need.”

Catherine David, chief executive, WRAP, said: “While collaboration through WRAP’s UK Food and Drink Pact has propelled the UK in the field of food waste prevention, it took the end of a pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis to get faster impact. This is a wakeup call that we all need to act: here in the UK to meet our targets, and through global co-ordination to share expertise and ensure this crucial area is a higher priority and is adequately funded. This is imperative if we are to continue reducing household food waste at scale.”

Source: Packaging News