Did you know that UK households throw away 7.2 million tonnes of food each year - most of which could have been eaten?
When you throw away food you are not just wasting the food, but also the resources such as energy, fuel, time and water that went into growing, harvesting, storing, transporting and cooking the food. Each month, the average family throws away £60 of good food that was bought but not eaten. The good news is that it’s easy to reduce the amount of food you throw away (and save up to £60 a month).
North London Waste Authority (NLWA), through its ‘Wise Up To Waste Campaign’ has launched a two-week food waste awareness campaign across north London to help people prevent and reduce food waste. NLWA want you all to get involved! Next time you are out and about, especially near a supermarket, keep your eyes peeled for one of the large billboards to get you thinking about ways to plan, shop and cook in everyday life.
Councillor Clyde Loakes, Chair of NLWA said:“Food makes up a huge proportion of north London's waste and reducing food waste is one of the single biggest things people can do to help the environment. Food prices are also rising, and projects in north London have shown that by focussing on food, residents can save a huge amount of money.”
NLWA are inviting people to take part in a Twitter competition to win a hard copy of the ‘North London Food Lovers Cookbook’. The cookbook features over 50 fantastic recipes including ‘Cheeky chicken soup’ and ‘Meat and two veg biryani’ which are all made from common types of leftovers and all recipes are collected from people living or working in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington or Waltham Forest.
For a chance to win a copy of this cookbook, NLWA are asking people to tweet their answer A, B or C, with the character hashtag to @WiseUpToWaste. Terms and Conditions are available at wiseuptowaste.org.uk/ food-waste/twitter-food-waste-competition-terms-and-conditions.Examples of the billboards to keep an eye out for are below and feature questions taken from the NLWA ‘food waste game’ available on the Wise Up To Waste website.
