Love Food Hate Waste

If you only have time on this visit to read the first sentence, this is the thought we want you to take away: Good food is something to love and relish, and we can do more to cut how much we waste.

How much do we waste in the UK? The figures might surprise you! Research done by Wrap (Waste & Resources Action Programme) show that around a third of all the food we buy in the UK ends up being thrown away. Whilst some of this waste isn't edible (e.g. meat bones) there's plenty of good food that could have been eaten - if only we had used it before it went off. How much money is wasted? Again, the research shows that the average household spends up to £400 on food per year that wasn't eaten.

That's the size of the problem on your purse. What about the environment? Does wasted food impact badly on the environment? The answer is a definite 'YES'!

In the UK we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year. Much of this ends up in landfill sites. This contributes to climate change in two ways. Firstly, the rotting process of organics releases methane and CO2 into the air. These are understood to be big causes of climate change across the globe. In the UK, landfill sites create around 3% of all the emissions of these gases. Secondly, producing, transporting and storing food uses a lot of energy, water and packaging. Each part of the process creates harmful climate change gases, for example lorries transporting goods from farms to supermarkets. It's bad enough that we create these harmful impacts to be able to get food on our tables. How much worse is it if we then waste the food itself? Well, we'd all say it isn't the best way to do things. So, is there anything practical that we can do at home to enjoy the food we buy whilst doing our bit to cut how much we waste? Thankfully, there is.

All 14 Kent councils have joined forces with Wrap on a great new campaign called "Love Food Hate Waste". You'll see coverage in newspapers and magazines. In Kent, we're the only county in the country where you'll also see it on billboards, buses, bus stops and in schools. Want to know what the campaign looks like? Easy - visit the Love Food Hate Waste campaign website to see how a pear and a tomato are the stars of the campaign

Why are the Kent councils supporting the campaign? It's because we want to do more to protect the fragile environment that we all love and cherish. Climate change is one of the biggest issues of the age. Anything that makes climate change worse needs to be tackled.

The councils are Kent County Council, Medway Council and the district/borough councils of: Ashford, Canterbury, Dartford, Dover, Gravesham, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Shepway, Swale, Tonbridge & Malling and Tunbridge Wells. Our statement of support is that: 'All the councils in Kent and Medway are proud to be among the first to support the Love Food Hate Waste campaign. Kent is known worldwide as the "Garden of England". Our high quality fruit and vegetables are enjoyed and savoured across the county. It is always sad when such tasty and wonderful food goes to waste. Cutting food waste also helps to protect the environment. We wholeheartedly encourage everyone to "Love Food Hate Waste".

If you would like practical advice on how you can reduce your food waste read our Love Food Hate Waste -Top tips.

We have produced video clips of these pages in British Sign Language (BSL) which are available to watch and download.