Food waste is a big problem that is fuelling climate change – it’s estimated that one-third of all the food produced worldwide is wasted.

In the UK alone the greenhouse gas emissions from food waste equal that of ten million cars. Plus, what is not counted in these figures is surplus food that is redistributed or made into animal feed, or food waste arising at the farm. The charity WRAP is doing lots of work to set out a roadmap to halve food waste by 2030, and this week (March 1-7) is the first national Food Waste Action Week. These is so much we can do to help!

Starting in the home, research shows we threw away 6.6 million tonnes of household food in 2018 in the UK. However, 70 per cent of people believe they have no food waste. So is there really no waste?

Some 30 per cent of what’s thrown away is the inedible parts of vegetables etc but we usually waste food we’ve bought in excess, unliked, forgotten or for that unusual recipe.

If you think you may have bought food in error or you won’t use it, then why not share it with a neighbour, or utilise the olio app?

Doing a weekly food list and sticking to it, and just buying what you need – The Blue Pantry in Wellington is great for that as you can just measure out the exact amount you need for a recipe will also help, as will making sure your fridge is cold enough and checking you know what’s in the freezer.

The love food hate waste website provides tools to help, including a recipe search, where you can enter an ingredient you need to use up, and it will suggest how you can use it.

Restaurants and takeaways can be huge culprits in food waste, so choosing businesses that are doing more will help encourage others to join in. Local restaurants such as The Pump House and Plantside in Wellington ask you to choose your meal when booking takeaways, meaning they have very little food wasted.

‘Guardians of Grub’ provide more suggestions for the catering industry and has a list of establishments cutting waste.

So what can we do as a community?

TTW has, for the last two years, used apples that would otherwise have been wasted to make apple juice, for sale at The Blue Pantry to raise funds for our group.

Larger scale gleaning projects like that run by Transition Worcester which aim to deal with food waste direct from the farm, could be possible here if we had more volunteers.

Sustainable Tiverton has a monthly food waste cafe and a community fridge, which is very inspiring. Transition Town Wellington is hoping to do the same, so if you can help be part of the team, please get in touch via [email protected]. So if you are doing all you can as a household, please consider joining the community to do more!

HELEN GILLINGHAM

Transition Town Wellington