Category: Uncategorised

4.4 million whole potatoes.

2.7 million whole carrots.

2.2 million slices’ worth of ham.

All of this and more is wasted every single day in UK homes, but why does this happen? From over-portioning to personal preference, let’s look at how we end up wasting food at home.

Not used in time

The main reason that food is wasted in our homes is because it wasn’t used in time, meaning it’s gone off in the back of the fridge or cupboard before we’ve had time to eat it.

This accounts for over 40% of the food we waste.

The good news is, this is a really easy issue to solve! Taking simple actions can help you use up all your food in time, from freezing food for another day to checking the date labels more carefully. Our sister brand ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ has plenty of tips to help with this, including the incredibly handy A-Z of Food Storage guide.

Personal preference

Sometimes, there are bits of our food that we just really don’t fancy eating. Whether it’s bread crusts or apple peel, there are certain things that put some people off. This is what we call ‘personal preference’, and it makes up 28% of the food we throw away.

Again, this is a simple issue to solve. Of the 6.6 million tonnes of food UK homes waste every year, 4.5 million tonnes could have been eaten, and there are some great ways to use it all up!

For example, did you know that the most wasted food in UK homes is potatoes – and most of this is because we throw away the peel? Try making skin-on mashed potato or homemade crisps out of the peel to stop all that valuable peel going to waste.

Bread crusts can be whizzed up into crumbs to use as a pasta or pie topping. Broccoli stems can be added to your stir fry or stew along with the florets. Carrots can be enjoyed without peeling them first – just a good scrub is all you need! Making the most of your edible food is easy, saves time and is fun.

Cooking, serving, or preparing too much

Some foods are hard to portion up, but overcooking, serving, or preparing accounts for 25% of wasted food. Freezing leftovers is a great solution, but making the perfect amount in the first place could be even better. Try Love Food Hate Waste’s portion planner to get started.

These reasons for waste are all really easy to tackle. We’re confident that every household in the UK can do their bit to reduce what gets thrown away, ultimately helping to protect our beautiful planet.

Over the last few years, concern for the environment has been increasing. We use phrases like ‘global warming’, ‘climate crisis’, and ‘greenhouse gas emissions’ more often than ever, but what does it all actually mean?

Before we tackle how and why wasting food contributes to climate change, we need to go back to basics and look at this global phenomenon from the ground up. Fasten your seatbelts – it’s time for some science.

Climate change: what it means

In its simplest terms, climate change means the gradual change in the makeup of our planet, including weather patterns and temperature changes. It’s a global issue which affects different places in various ways, from melting ice caps to forest fires.

Climate change: rising temperatures

One of the major consequences (and drivers) of climate change is the gradual warming of the Earth’s temperatures. The world is roughly 1°C warmer than it was pre-1900, which has resulted in the oceans in particular becoming warmer as well, with drastic effects on the polar ice caps which many species depend on. Melted ice also results in sea levels rising, which could in the long-term mean that coastal towns and cities are at risk of flooding or even being submerged.

Climate change: extreme weather patterns

With global temperatures increasing, there is evidence to show that this (and climate change more broadly) are having an impact on extreme weather. Droughts, floods, and meteorological events (like storms) have been becoming more frequent since the 1980s, and studies indicate that human activity is contributing to this trend.

What the long-term effects will be is unclear, but the connection between these extreme weather events and climate change is increasingly apparent.

Climate change: biodiversity loss

When habitats change (like polar ice caps shrinking), this can lead to species being in danger of extinction. All animals exist somewhere in a food chain, so when one species declines in numbers, this has a domino effect on the other animals which depend on it for survival.

Animals are generally divided into ‘predator’ and ‘prey’. If certain ‘predator’ species are declining, the ‘prey’ they eat could rapidly increase in number, with uncertain effects on the rest of the chain. The more damage caused by climate change, the more we risk upsetting the delicate balance of our Earth’s natural ecosystems.

Climate change: what causes it?

This is a complex question, with few simple answers.

While the Earth’s climate has varied naturally over millennia, scientists around the world agree human activity is driving factor of the climate change we experience today. We are doing this by releasing gases into the atmosphere, like carbon dioxide from burning fuels, which trap the heat from the sun and stop it escaping into space as quickly and easily as it normally does. This results in disruption to the Earth’s climate, rather than everywhere equally getting a bit hotter. The rising average temperatures are traceable to when industrialised activity began en masse, as well as rapidly increasing populations.

More people on the planet increases demand for water, land, crops, and other natural resources which can contribute to global heating or magnify the resulting effects. The food production system requires a lot of land, water, nutrients, and energy, meaning it has a big part to play in this issue.

Over-reliance on fossil fuels is also a large culprit, which is why governments, businesses, and citizens around the world are now looking to renewable sources of energy as a way to reduce our impact on the planet. ‘Deforestation’ (or permanently removing masses of trees) is also playing a huge role in releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Trees capture carbon during photosynthesis and release oxygen into the air, helping the world maintain a natural balance, so if there are fewer trees this means more carbon in our atmosphere.

Crucially for us, wasting food is one of many contributing factors to climate change. However, unlike some others, this is one that every single person can do something about. We all have the power every day to waste less food, ultimately reducing the impact we have on the environment.

As our world changes, the environment is increasingly under threat. Trees themselves are a key weapon against climate change, but what impact do they have? And why do we talk about wasted food in terms of planting an equivalent number of trees? Here’s our quick guide to the environmental benefit trees have on climate change.

How trees protect the planet

Trees are a crucial natural element of life on earth. When trees grow, they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the air, so the more trees there are on the earth, the more carbon is stored in trunks, roots, deadwood and soil.

So, when forests are cleared, the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, which contributes to the ‘greenhouse’ effect. The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the warmer our planet becomes, causing our ice caps to melt and sea levels to rise.

How does wasting food relate to trees?

Wasting food has a greater impact on the environment than just the methane released when it rots in landfills. Food production is a driver of global deforestation.  Producing food requires a substantial amount of water, energy, soil, and time – not to mention the distance much of it travels to get to our plates! When we waste food, all those resources are wasted as well.

The carbon impact of producing the food we waste is, therefore, a key factor in our changing climate. For example, in UK homes, we waste 4.4 million potatoes every single day; over a whole year, producing that many potatoes generates the equivalent of 330,000 tonnes of CO₂e.

It would take 5.4 million trees being planted to capture that much carbon dioxide, showing what a significant impact not wasting food can have.

Simple actions can make a big difference in reducing how much food is wasted – take a look at our top tips to get started.