Food Waste Action Week

Dacorum Borough Council helped residents cut food waste and save money during Food Waste Action Week 2021.

The week-long event (1-7 March 2021) was part of the national Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) campaign and aimed to highlight the environmental impact of food waste. The key message of the week was: ‘wasting food feeds climate change’.

Dacorum Borough Council held a competition to discover residents top tips for reducing food waste. Three winners selected at random were Gwyn from Tring, and Kate and Racheal from Hemel Hempstead.

UK households waste 6.5 million tonnes of food every year – 4.5 million tonnes of this is edible food waste, such as bread crusts, plate scrapings, and food that’s gone out of date. This waste is worth £13.8 billion, equivalent to £60 per month for the average UK household.

The most wasted food items in the UK include potatoes, bread, and milk. Every day the UK throws away 20 million slices of bread, 4.4 million whole potatoes, and 3.1 million glasses of milk. (Facts from LFHW).

Reducing this amount of food waste is one of the easiest ways to tackle climate change – and it saves money.

Spare food can be shared using food sharing apps such as Olio or the Hemel Hempstead Community Fridge, which recently opened in Dacorum, is a great way to reduce waste and help people in the community at the same time.

Sometimes disposing of food is unavoidable. All food can be recycled in the food caddy including bones, meat, vegetable peelings, egg shells, and stones. All packaging should be removed. Dacorum Borough Council collects this waste and converts it into electricity and liquid fertilizer to be returned to the land.

Find out more information about the Love Food Hate Waste campaign and find food saving tips here: www.dacorum.gov.uk/home/environment-street-care/recycling-refuse-waste/love-food-hate-waste

To register an interest in the next Love Food, Hate Waste Challenge please email recycle@dacorum.gov.uk.