Food waste is one of the biggest challenges the world is facing today, with the UK throwing away around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste every year – despite the fact that 8.4 million people in the UK are in food poverty! One third of all food produced is wasted, around 1.3 billion tonnes, which costs the global economy $940 billion every year. The United Nations added tackling food waste to their Sustainable Development Goals, and plan to have the amount of food waste halved by 2030.
So where do we waste the most food?
Marked, discoloured or oddly sized fruit and vegetables that don’t meet the standards of the marketplace (up to 20-40%) are thrown away before even leaving the farm, and some food can go off during transport. Offcuts and foods past their use-by dates are binned by both retailers and by us at home (In developed countries, this kind of waste is the greatest proportion of food lost). Cooked, uneaten food is also binned.
The most commonly wasted foods include bread, milk, potatoes, cheese and apples, and the leading causes of food waste are overbuying, overproduction and spoilage. Check out our 5 tips below to see how you can reduce your food waste!
Here at Tops, we know that left over food is sometimes unavoidable. That’s why we have composters and wormeries in our nurseries to turn waste food into compost that we use in our gardens. We also teach our children to be waste conscious and discuss different ways to prevent food waste. Find out more about what we have done to tackle food waste!
Learn more about how we are sustainable in practice.
Providing happy, nurturing childcare for the hours you need, across over 30 nursery settings in: Babbacombe, Plymouth, Bournemouth, Charminster, Copnor, Fawley, Gillingham, Corfe Mullen, Havant, Lakeside, Lymington, Taunton, Newport, Poole, Portsmouth, Salisbury, Southsea, Wareham, Wimborne, Winchester and Yeovil.
