Food waste in the United Kingdom is a subject of environmental, and socioeconomic concern that has received widespread media coverage and been met with varying responses from government. Since 1915, food waste has been identified as a considerable problem and has been the subject of ongoing media attention, intensifying with the launch of the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign in 2007. Food waste has been discussed in newspaper articles, news reports and television programmes, which have increased awareness of it as a public issue. To tackle waste issues, encompassing food waste, the government-funded "Waste & Resources Action Programme" (WRAP) was created in 2000.
A significant proportion of food waste is produced by the domestic household, which in 2007[needs update] created 6,700,000 tonnes of food waste. Potatoes, bread slices and apples are the most wasted foods by quantity, while salads are thrown away in the greatest proportion. A majority of food waste food is avoidable,[d] with the rest being divided almost equally into foods which are unavoidable[clarification needed] (e.g. tea bags) and those that are unavoidable due to preference[clarification needed] (e.g. bread crusts) or cooking type (e.g. potato skins).
Reducing the amount of food waste has been deemed critical if the UK is to meet international targets on climate change, limiting greenhouse gas emissions, and obligations under the European Landfill Directive to reduce biodegradable waste going to landfill. Equally great emphasis has been placed on the reduction of food waste, across all developed countries, as a means of ending the global food crisis[needs update] that left millions worldwide starving and impoverished. In the context of the 2007–2008 world food price crisis, food waste was discussed at the 34th G8 summit in Hokkaidō, Japan. The then UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said of the issue: "We must do more to deal with unnecessary demand, such as by all of us doing more to cut our food waste".[1]
In June 2009, the Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced the Government's "War on waste", a programme aimed at reducing Britain's food waste. The proposed plans under the scheme included: scrapping best before and limiting sell by labels on food, creating new food packaging sizes, constructing more "on-the-go" recycling points and unveiling five flagship anaerobic digestion plants. Two years after its launch,[needs update] the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign was claiming it had already prevented 137,000 tonnes of waste and, through the help it had given to over 2,000,000 households, had made savings of £300,000,000.
Food waste was identified as a problem in the UK as early as World War I. Combating food waste was one of the initial goals of the Women's Institutes (WI), set up in 1915, and remains a subject of their campaigns.[2][3][4] Rationing was adopted during World War I, although it was voluntary, from February 1917; it was only between December 1917 and February 1918 that rationing began, in stages, to be made compulsory.[5] Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that by 1918 fines were imposed on either individuals or businesses for wasting food. Meanwhile, in the United States (where shortages were hardly comparable), legislators considered laws restricting the distribution of food in order to cut waste, breaches of which might be punishable by fines or imprisonment.[6]
During World War II, rationing was imposed almost immediately. Restrictions were immediately more stringent than in World War I: with effect from 8 January 1940, ration books were issued and most foods were subject to ration.[2][7] By August 1940, food waste was an imprisonable offence under the law.[8] Posters encouraged kitchen waste to be used for feeding animals, primarily swine but also poultry.
Many of the methods suggested by current campaigns to prevent food waste have taken inspiration from those of World War II.[2][9][10] Despite this, it remains debatable whether the waste campaigns and rationing, during and post-WWII, achieved any long-term change in people's attitudes towards waste; WRAP's report on domestic household waste found that older people generate as much avoidable waste as younger people.[11] Further, as early as 1980, only twenty-five years after rationing was fully abolished,[7] a journal article published that year found significant levels of waste at home, in restaurants and in sectors of the food industry.[12] However, the rising amount of food waste could also be attributed to a change of lifestyle, for instance the buying of produce which has a shorter shelf life; which would involuntarily lead to more food being thrown away.[13]
By the late 1990s, things had worsened, and the food manufacturing sector was estimated to be generating over 8,000,000 tonnes of food waste annually.[14][15] A documentary in 1998 revealed tonnes of edible food being discarded at a Tesco store, provoking a renewed response on the issue of food waste.[16] In 2000, the UK Government created the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a government-funded, not-for-profit company that advises on how to reduce waste and use resources efficiently.[17] In 2007, WRAP launched the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign and returned food waste to the forefront of the news and public agenda.[18] Two years later, the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign claimed to have prevented 137,000 tonnes of waste being sent to landfill and saved £300,000,000.[19]
In 2005, facing "limited information about the amounts and types of food waste produced", WRAP launched a "major research programme"[20] which would lead to the publishing of "The food we waste report" on 8 May 2008.[21] Believed at the time to be "the first of its kind in the world", the report interviewed 2,175 householders and collected waste from 2,138 of them.[22]
If we are to get food prices down, we must do more to deal with unnecessary demand, such as by all of us doing more to cut our food waste which is costing the average household in Britain around £8 per week.
Gordon Brown speaking to journalists shortly before attending the 34th G8 Summit, The Independent, July 2008[23]
Since the developments of 2007–08, food waste has continued to be a subject of attention,[1] discussed in almost every major UK newspaper, often with issues such as climate change and famine in African nations.[24][25][26] To reduce the impact of the aforementioned, food waste has been among the topics of discussion at recent International Summits; food waste was debated during the 34th G8 summit in Hokkaidō, Japan, as part of the discussion on the 2007–2008 world food price crisis.[23]
In June 2009, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced the "War on waste", new government plans aimed at reducing Britain's food waste.[27][28] It was planned to remove "best before" labels and limit the "sell by" labels on foods.[28][29][30] New food packaging sizes are planned to be introduced, coming as EU rules on packaging sizes are lifted and people are increasingly living alone.[31] Five flagship anaerobic digestion plants with "cutting-edge technology" were to be built before the end of March 2011;[27] they would together receive a grant of £10,000,000 from WRAP's "Anaerobic Digestion Demonstration Programme".[27] Liz Goodwin, WRAP Chief Executive Officer, said of the five projects: "These projects are truly ground-breaking. Between them, they demonstrate how anaerobic digestion can help the UK efficiently meet the challenges of reducing carbon emissions and improving sustainable food production."[27]
The UK Government's "Resources and Waste Strategy", published in December 2018, set out current government policy on "how we will preserve our stock of material resources by minimising waste, promoting resource efficiency and moving towards a circular economy". In relation to food waste, chapter 5 of the strategy set out objectives to:
Ben Elliot was appointed by Michael Gove, then the Secretary of State for Environment, as the government's first Food Surplus and Waste Champion.[33]
The single largest producer of food waste in the United Kingdom is the domestic household. In 2007[needs update], households created 6,700,000 tonnes of food waste – accounting for 19 per cent of all municipal solid waste.[35]
Much of the food thrown away could have been avoided (4,100,000 tonnes, 61 per cent of the total amount of food waste) and with better management could have been eaten or used.[38] Unavoidable foods, such as vegetable peelings and tea bags, account for 19 per cent of the total, with the remaining 20 per cent being unavoidable[dubious – discuss] through preferences (e.g. bread crusts) and cooking types (e.g. potato skins).[38] However, the vast majority of consumers (90%) are unaware of the amount of food they throw away;[39] individuals who believed that their household wasted no food were shown to be throwing away 88 kg of avoidable food per year.[40]
The amount of food waste produced by a household and its occupants is affected by several factors;[41] WRAP found the most important factors to be:
Regarding household size, the relationship is not proportional (two occupants do not dispose of twice as much food waste as one occupant):[43]
Other sectors also contribute food waste. The food industry produces large amounts of food waste, with retailers alone generating 1,600,000 tonnes of food waste per year.[49] Supermarkets particularly have been criticised for wasting items which are damaged or unsold (what the industry calls 'surplus food'), but that often remain edible.[50] However, exact statistics for the amount of food wasted by supermarkets is mostly unavailable; although a few voluntarily release data on food waste, it is not required by law.[51] Similarly, limited information is available on amounts generated by the agricultural sector.[15] Before a reversal of European Union policy in 2008, which came into effect on 1 July 2009,[52] misshaped or 'wonky' fruit and vegetables could not be sold by retailers and were required to be thrown away.[53]
Food waste puts a large burden on the finances of each household and local councils in the UK; wasted food is estimated to cost each British household £250–400 per year,[55] accumulating to £15,000–24,000 over a lifetime.[56] This comes from the total purchasing cost of the food against what is thrown away uneaten. Additionally, households pay for the collection and disposal of food waste by their local council in the form of council tax.[56] For councils, the cost of food waste comes from its collection and disposal as a part of the waste stream; this is especially an issue for councils that run separate food waste collections.
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Food waste is generally considered to have a damaging effect on the environment; a reduction in food waste is considered critical if the UK is to meet obligations under the European Landfill Directive to reduce biodegradable waste going to landfill and favourable considering international targets on climate change, limiting greenhouse gas emissions.[24] When disposed of in landfill, food waste releases methane, a relatively damaging greenhouse gas,[58][59] and leachate, a toxin capable of considerable groundwater pollution.[15] The food supply chain accounts for a fifth of UK carbon emissions;[55][58] the production, storage and transportation of food to homes requires large amounts of energy.[28] The effects of stopping food waste that can potentially be prevented has been likened to removing one in five cars from UK roads.[55]
Internationally, food waste's effect on the environment has been an issue. Ireland is facing fines of millions of euros if the amount of biodegradable waste it sends to landfill does not fall below the maximum quantity set by the European Union's Landfill Directive.[60] By 2010, the same directive will impose fines of £40m a year across England, rising to £205m by 2013, if its own targets on biodegradable municipal waste are not met; the amount of biodegradable municipal waste being sent to landfill in 2010 must be 75% of that sent in 1995, by 2013 it must be 50% and by 2020 it must be 35%.[61][62]
In the context of the 2007–2008 world food price crisis and potential food shortages, food waste is an important and impacting issue.[63][64][65] The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) identified food waste as being a critical problem, a view shared by a Cabinet Office report on food;[66] it said that doing nothing to solve it would lead to severe food shortages, which may trigger food price climbs of up to 50%.[57] With a third of food purchased in the UK never eaten, the country was singled out in the report.[57] UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said that: "Over half of the food produced today is either lost, wasted or discarded as a result of inefficiency in the human-managed food chain. There is evidence within the report [The Environmental Food crises: Environment's role in averting future food crises] that the world could feed the entire projected population growth alone by becoming more efficient while also ensuring the survival of wild animals, birds and fish on this planet."[57]