Waste Not, Want Not

In theory, I detest waste. In reality, I am a poor practitioner of my parents’ ‘waste not, want not’ mantra. The other day, I threw out: several slices of pre-packaged cheese that looked like they’d had a run in with some wilting dandelion puffs; assorted breads cultivating hamlets of green mould, and several vegetable stuffs that had spontaneously liquefied. Although this is an all too common occurrence, on this occasion I did it with more than an afterthought: unless you’ve accidentally tripped into an Iceland chest-freezer and been quasi-cryogenically frozen, you’ll know that the scale of food waste is a topic on everyone’s lips. Or not, as the case may be.

Frugality may have seen a necessary resurgence post-recession, yet collectively we seem to be more wasteful than ever, especially in the food stakes (less than we were in 2007, but the figures are still huge) – and what better moment to broach such an issue than at this time of unbridled excess? (There’ll be no guilt-tripping here, though, just a gentle nudge in the right direction – more in the vein of Flight of the Conchords’ Issues (Think About It) than the populist smugness of [Feed The World] Do They Know It’s Christmas?) 

Perhaps you’ll recall Tesco’s bagged-salad-gate from October, when they revealed the staggering amount of waste across their operation: they generated around 28,000 tonnes in the first half of 2013 alone. More staggering still is the fact that they are but a bit-part contributor to the 15 million tonnes of food we waste each year.

Following this admission, the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), who had worked with Tesco to figure out their food waste 'footprint', published a report in November on the scale of household food waste. It showed that almost '50% of the total [waste] across all sectors' is produced by consumers. Of these approximately 7 million tonnes, 4.2 million were ‘avoidable’, i.e. food that could have been eaten. Not eggshells and green potatoes. Something’s clearly going wrong.  

Reactions on forums attached to articles about household food waste are enlightening. Among differing opinions, there is plenty of disbelief, righteousness, and reference to Tory blame-culture. While we have to be mindful not to interpret the report in a way that absolves supermarkets and other sectors of blame, it’s no good letting ideology and the ‘well, I’m not wasteful, so others can’t possibly waste that much/so it must be others wasting it' mindset get in the way.  

Yes, supermarkets are undeniably complicit in this waste. They package things in quantities we often don’t need. Their 'uniform standardisation parameters', which favour stocking ‘perfect’ produce, have made us suspicious of food that has turned in our fridges or on the shelves, and leads to the rejection of tonnes of edible food earlier on in the food chain. Salad leaves could indeed be sold individually – as they sometimes are in greengrocers.

Though Tesco have announced plans to improve their practices and Sainsbury’s intend to open their first waste neutral store, we as consumers need to petition for change if we’re not going to acknowledge our shortcomings or adjust our own behaviour, which many would argue is but a byproduct of ‘supermarket culture’ and a lack of education.

At the very least, supporting MP Kerry McCarthy’s 2012 food waste bill, which demands that supermarkets donate excess food to charities, would be a good place to start. Indignant forum-ites can ask for more education in schools – and beyond – on buying and storing food, something that WRAP’s own Love Food Hate Waste campaign has tried to do. Elsewhere, we can encourage initiatives like Company Shop, which sells residual supermarket stock at discounts of up to 90%, though stores only exist in Barnsley and Grimsby so far.

Things are apparently improving. According to WRAP, food waste has decreased by 21% since 2007. And there is good work being done: closer to home, 300 of Manchester’s restaurants including the Mark Addy and San Carlo have signed up to the Green Chef’s food waste collection service, which diverts hospitality waste from landfills to anaerobic digesters and vessel composting schemes.

If the industry is willing to change and we can re-assess our sometimes blasé attitudes towards throwing out food, maybe we can achieve BandAid’s dream of feeding the world. Just without the annoying bloody pop songs.