Personal Budget Training: Waste Not, Want Not

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Waste Not, Want Not

More than three million tons of wasted food are being dumped every year by households in the UK, that is about one third of what they buy, according to a recent study.

The group WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities in the UK to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources.

This study which is believed to be the first of its kind in the world, consisted of a detailed survey of households and a physical analysis of their waste.

A representative sample of 2,715 households in England and Wales was interviewed, and several weeks later, 2,138 of them had their waste collected for analysis.

The research was designed so that WRAP could quantify the amounts and types of food waste being produced, but also made links between this and the attitudes displayed by, and disposal options available to the household.

We throw food out for two main reasons: food gets forgotten and is left unused and we serve too much and do not use the leftovers.

Check out this site dedicated to keeping good food out of the trash.

Just by stopping the waste of good food, you could avoid 18 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents from being emitted each year, the same as taking 1 in 5 cars off of UK roads.

Do you eat your leftovers?

Labels: money saving tip