Love Food Hate Waste

Is there an environmental impact?

The environmental costs of food waste are enormous.

The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.

It is estimated that over 20% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food production, distribution and storage….

Cheese is a good example – feeding and milking the cows, cooling and transporting the milk, processing it in to cheese, packing it, getting it to the shops, keeping it at the right temperature all the time. If it then gets thrown away it will most likely end up in a landfill site, where, rather than harmlessly decomposing as many people think, it rots and actually releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

In addition, most of the food we waste ends up in landfills, here it decomposes to produce methane - a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than Carbon dioxide (CO₂) and a significant contributor to climate change.

Greenhouse gas emissions of around 17 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent are associated with the manufacture, distribution, storage, use and disposal of avoidable food that is wasted in the UK.

If we stopped wasting all this food, we could prevent enough carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year that would equate to taking 1 in 5 cars off Welsh roads.

Top tips on how to reduce food waste on next page

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