For every gram of edible food that ends up in the bin there is an economic, social and environmental cost.
Wasting less food is an important part of reducing the impact of food on climate change. The climate impact from producing the food really adds up in embodied carbon; for every kg of food wasted, on average you are also throwing away the carbon equivalent of 3.39kg.
The impacts embedded in that wasted food are the CO2e (greenhouse gases) created through its production, because it’s not just the food itself we’re wasting – it’s the resources that go into growing, cultivating, transporting, preparing and cooking it that are wasted too. If food waste was a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the US.
We have initially committed to reducing our food wastage over the next 12 months by 20%. We will do this by splitting our food waste into the four categorised waste bins which are:
- Preparation
- Spoilage
- Plate
- Other
We will then weigh and analyse how we can prevent this wastage. Once we have reached this target we aim to reduce our food waste by 50% by 2030 in line with the global waste reduction targets set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 and are further defined by the UK’s Food Waste Reduction Roadmap.