Our talk this month was entitled ‘Love food, hate waste’. Emma Croft, who is the Waste Minimiser Officer for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, told us about her job encouraging people to waste less, recycle more and mend things rather than just sending them to landfill. The council spends £4.5 million on landfill tax each year.
We were shocked to find how much food is wasted on a single day, mainly vegetables, fruit, bread and dairy products. For instance more than 5.3 million potatoes are thrown away each day and 4.1 million apples also end up in the bin along with 1.4 million sausages. Half of what is thrown away could have been consumed.
Part of Emma’s job is to help people plan for the week so that they don’t buy too much, portion control, how to store food to prolong it’s shelf life, as well as suggestions of how to use up excess food to prevent it being wasted. There are lots of tips on the ‘Love food, hate waste’ website.
She also showed us the latest food waste digesters, which are supplied, from the council, at a 78% reduction and which can deal with all types of food waste including cooked food, meat and bones etc without attracting vermin, preventing it going to landfill sites where it produces methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas.