Love Food, Hate Waste

We all know that the best way to manage waste is to not create it in the first place. An interesting study by WRAP in April 2008 found that 1/3 of the food we buy gets thrown away. These foods—including lots of baked goods and vegetables—could have been eaten if managed properly.

I can understand this—I have admittedly thrown away slices of moldy bread and the occasional bag of slimy forgotten vegetables. I didn’t mean to waste the bread. I didn’t intend to neglect the zucchini.

WRAP understands this, too. People do not maliciously mismanage their food; they just get busy doing other things, or perhaps make poor choices on the front end. That’s why WRAP developed outreach and education tools—like this slick website with recipes, shopping lists, and meal planning programs—to help people buy and manage their perishable foods.

Some of their tips are just basic common sense: make a list before you go to the store. By using these tools, you save time and money, and you do not generate as much food waste.Always a punster, here are some of my ideas for pitching (and promoting) these ideas:

• Lettuce (let us) save money!

• Donut (do not) let your baked goods go bad.

• Think & ink ahead: make a shopping list.

I learned about WRAP’s study and LoveFoodHateWaste.com website when, in November 2008, I attended an “Organic Waste Management in Urban Environments” Conference in Brussels, Belgium. While most of the topics were on composting and food scrap collection, this presentation went straight to the source: food purchases. It made me think, “Give me your jelly donuts!”

Here is the executive summary of the study.
Here is the full report of the study.

At your food scrap disposal,
Meredith

A side note:
The English language in the UK is a bit different from the English language in the US. “Rubbish” means “trash,” and a “tonne” is different than a “ton.”

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