Lucy Ravenhall – Page 17 – The Waste Management & Recycling Blog

Aldi fights food waste with improved packaging

Aldi has unveiled new fresh produce packaging, which features tips on maximising shelf life and cutting food waste at home.

This news comes following the January 2017 announcement that UK households wasted 7.3 million tonnes of food in 2015. This figure was higher than previous years, meaning food waste at home is on the rise despite Government pledges to cut it. WRAP encouraged retailers to make changes following January’s annoucement, and this packaging change is Aldi’s response.

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Pubs told to shrink plate sizes in battle against food waste

In a country that is currently throwing away £13bn of food at home each year, many suggestions are being made on how to tackle the issue of wasted food. This figure doesn’t even consider the food waste created outside of the home, which is an equally large problem faced by the UK, and one being investigated currently.

Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has been advising MPs, who are investigating how to cut food waste figures in the UK, and have suggested that pubs serving carveries should switch to smaller plate sizes.

Meals at pub carveries are sold at one set price for adults and are often self-serve, which leads people to fit as much food on their plate as possible, to get the best ‘value for money’ – or just because their eyes are bigger than their stomach, as suggested by Labour MP Angela Smith. More often than not, this results in leftovers of good food on plates, which then end up in the bin.

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How one woman cut Denmark’s food waste by 25%

In Denmark, one woman has been credited by the Government for single-handedly helping the country to cut its national food waste by 25 per cent in just five years.

Selina Juul, who moved to Denmark from Russia when she was 13-years-old, has always had an interest in the environment, sustainability and global responsibility. Viewing food waste as disrespectful, Juul set up a Facebook page in 2008 called ‘Stop Wasting Food’ (Stop Spild Af Mad, in Danish), and just one week later she was a national figure.

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Millennials more likely to waste food, study finds

7m tonnes of household food waste is thrown out per year in the UK, which is worth an estimated £7.5bn. A study by a national supermarket has found that younger people are more likely to be creating the majority of this waste than older generations.

The Sainsbury’s study concluded that there is a large generational gap regarding food waste. Over half of under 35s have a ‘live to eat’ mindset, placing more importance on the pleasure of food than its necessity, and conversely, the majority of those 35 and over fall into the ‘eat to live’ category. Only a third of over 55s ‘live to eat’.

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90% of new power in Europe from renewable sources

In a clear sign of Europe’s recent shift away from fossil fuels, it has been found that nearly 90 per cent of the power added to the EU’s electricity grids in 2016 was from renewable sources. Wind farms accounted for more than half of this power (51 per cent), for the first time ever, with the other renewable sources being solar, biomass, and hydro.

Chart: Forge Recycling. Data source: WindEurope

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Win a Zero Waste lunch kit with Forge Recycling!

This competition has ended. Thank you to all who entered. The lucky winner was Alison Barlow on Twitter.

Was one of your new year’s resolutions for 2017 to waste less, to cut out plastic, or perhaps to save money? Whichever of those camps you fall into, this competition is definitely for you! Or, maybe you’d just like to win a fantastic zero waste freebie for yourself or a loved one.

Of all the zero waste challenges in life, lunch is a big one. After all, how many of us grab lunch from a local shop or café, which involves all manner of ‘single-use’ plastics? Even if you pack your own lunch at home, avoiding waste can be very tricky – many people use cling film, foil, and sandwich bags as habit.

So, how can you pack a zero waste lunch? With a zero waste lunch kit, of course!

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London breached its annual air pollution limit in five days

London broke its annual air pollution limit last Thursday, just five days into 2017. UK law states that hourly levels of toxic nitrogen dioxide (NO2) must not exceed 200 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) more than 18 times in a whole year, yet this limit was reached and broken on 5^th January on Brixton Road in Lambeth. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise however, when you take a look at last year’s air pollution statistics for Brixton Road: in 2016 it broke the hourly limit 502 times.

It is expected that many other London hotspots will also frequently break the limit throughout the year. London’s Putney High Street broke the hourly limits 1,221 times last year, vastly exceeding the permitted 18 annual breaches, and many other busy areas such as Kings Road, Oxford Street and the Strand struggled with the limit, and will continue to do so this year.

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Food waste education is counteracted by composting education

Ohio State University has released the results of a study of food waste, which observed the actions of restaurant diners. The results show that education is a successful tool in beating the production of food waste, however if people are informed their waste will be composted, the education benefits disappear and people are happy to waste as much food as those who are completely uneducated in the environmental impact of their waste.

Lead researcher Danyi Qi, a graduate student in agricultural economics at The Ohio State University, said of the matter:

“This presents a tricky situation for policymakers figuring out how to manage food waste, because the top tactics are prevention (through education) and diversion (through composting). When you do both, they cancel each other out — they work at cross purposes.”

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Four in five Scots would welcome a second-hand Christmas gift

A survey backed by Zero Waste Scotland has found that four-fifths of Scots would welcome a pre-loved gift for Christmas, but 65 per cent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t consider buying a second-hand gift for a loved one. Only one quarter of Scots have ever gifted someone a second-hand item.

Iain Gulland, Chief Executive with Zero Waste Scotland, said:

“People may worry that friends and family won’t be happy with a second-hand gift, but these new figures show the majority of people would actually welcome a pre-loved gift. Now that there are over 80 Revolve certified shops across the country, including high street branches of Sense Scotland and Capability Scotland, it has never been easier to find a place to shop second-hand with confidence.”

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England’s recycling rates have dropped

England’s household recycling rates have dropped for the first time ever, prompting calls for drastic change, and no doubt ending the UK’s chances of meeting the EU recycling target of 50 per cent by 2020.

The amount of waste being recycled by English households had been heading in the right direction, steadily increasing for a decade, however it had flatlined for three years more recently. Now newly released figures have shown that the amount of waste recycled between 2014 and 2015 in England had decreased, from 44.8% to 43.9% respectively. This is the first drop since the country began tracking recycling figures, and means England has fallen back to pre-2012 recycling rates.

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