Love Food Hate Waste

As one of Greener Kirkcaldy’s Waste Champions, during the summer I went along to some Love Food Hate Waste training run by Zero Waste Scotland. The purpose of the training was to learn about Scotland’s relationship with food waste and how those of us getting trained can educate and pass on the message to others. The more people who hear about and learn what to do with food waste will help Scotland on it’s way to reducing food waste dramatically. In this blog I hope to share some of the knowledge I got and hopefully make you rethink what you do with the food in your home.

My preparation for this training started a week before the day. Everyone receiving the training was set a task – to keep track of all the food thrown out during the week and see how much we personally threw away. I live in a family of four so keeping track was always going to be difficult. In the end I managed and I don’t think we did too bad, however on the grand scale of things it builds up. The worst thing in my household is that I don’t have a food waste bin so all my food waste goes to landfill and the first day I did the food diary I had to throw out more than I wanted..

Now for some fast facts from the training:

• On average each household in Scotland throws away £460 worth of food a year (£38 a month)
• 1/3 of the world’s food is wasted
• If we all stop wasting food that could be eaten, that is as eco-friendly as taking 1/4 of cars off the road
• Every year more food is thrown out than packaging
• Each person could save up to £205 a year if they threw away less food

Based on these facts there is so much that can be done in the way of reducing food waste. Key tips are to figure out portion sizes before cooking and planning your shopping better like listing and checking cupboards. Love Food Hate Waste have set out to make things easier and there is a mobile app that lets you keep track of everything. The app is easy to find just search Love Food Hate Waste on android and apple devices.

A thing that is sometimes ignored more than it should be is the freezer, there is plenty of ways you can use your freezer to full capacity. Oh no, you’ve made too much food? Put it in a container in the freezer and you can have some leftovers for lunch the next day. Oh you’re not going to use that today? Just put in the freezer, it will preserve it. Food near its use by date? Not anymore if you put it in the freezer. Also a freezer is working its best when full. When the freezer is at full capacity it is using it’s power more effectively which is also more eco-friendly.

Personally, learning about all this and how to pass on the message has inspired me to take more consideration into my home’s food waste and making sure I use all the hints and tips to stop getting unnecessary food. This has led to me having to constantly remind my mum not to buy more tomato puree because we already have 3 tubes in the cupboard. On a better note our freezer is, most of the time, at full capacity. I hope in the future I will finally get a food waste bin so the food I do waste can be put in a better place than landfill.

*Remember to download the Love Food Hate Waste app where you can make shopping lists, do stock takes of what food is in your house and also get tips about what to do with leftovers.