Gloucestershire families waste hundreds of pounds on food every year!
On average, a typical family in the county spends £610 on food that goes to waste. For every three bags of shopping we buy at the supermarket, one of them gets thrown away.
Every day in Gloucestershire alone, 41,000 apples, 65,000 slices of bread, 26,000 tomatoes and 12,000 unopened yogurts go in the bin.
Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment and waste, said: “The vast majority of this waste will end up in landfill.
“This is such a waste.It is also not only damaging to the environment, but increasingly expensive both as a consumer and a taxpayer – with landfill tax rising sharply.”
Once buried underground, the food waste rots and produces methane – a powerful greenhouse gas which is harmful to the environment.
Gloucestershire County Council has teamed up with councils across the South West to launch a regional Love Food Hate Waste campaign, to try and reduce the amount of food waste we produce.
The photograph shows the Randall family from Nailsworth with six trolley loads of food that represents the amount of food wasted each year by a typical family. Left to right – Claire, 38, Clint, 39, Becky, three, Tom, 14 and Will, five.
29 October 2009