Take the Love Food, Hate Waste Challenge

In November Dacorum’s Borough Council’s Love Food, Hate Waste Challenge returns for its seventh consecutive year.

UK households waste 4.5 million tonnes of edible food every year, which amounts to around £720 for an average family per year. With the current cost of living crisis, saving our food is more necessary than ever. As well as the cost, every bit of wasted food also has an environmental impact – transport, fuel, water, energy – it all adds up. Not only the harmful greenhouse gases created by producing food that isn’t used, or even from the food rotting in landfill, it’s also the waste of all the precious resources that it takes to bring that food to the plate – the land, water, energy and hard work.

Whether residents feel they waste very little food or they are conscious of their food waste habits and would like to learn how to tackle these, the Council encourages all Dacorum residents to sign up to this year’s challenge.

The challenge aims to help residents reduce their food waste through regular guidance in the form of top tips to limit avoidable food waste in their day-to-day life, recipe ideas and a food waste diary to keep track of their progress. Residents who participate in the challenge also have an opportunity to win a food blender to help reduce their food waste even further.

Last year over 170 Dacorum residents completed the challenge, 84% of whom felt it helped reduce food waste in their household and 96% of whom said they were likely to share what they’d learned with their friends or family.

Elizabeth, one of last year’s participants said: ‘This challenge has been a real eye opener for me. I wasn’t taught things like this at school like basics of how to manage a kitchen but this has really made me review how we live and eat as a family.’

While another participant, Rob, said: ‘This project allowed us a point of focus and was just what we needed. I noticed it most when I debated putting our bin out for collection as there was so little to take.’

The Dacorum Love Food, Hate Waste Challenge will run from Tuesday 1 November to Wednesday 30 November 2022. To register, residents should email recycle@dacorum.gov.uk to express their interest.

More information about the challenge can be found on the Council’s webpage www.dacorum.gov.uk/lovefood.