This Food Waste Action Week (1st-7th March) Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is asking residents to think before they buy their weekly food shops.
Lost or wasted food accounts for a staggering 8–10% of total man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The UK’s first ever Food Waste Action Week will run from Monday 1 to Sunday 7 March 2021, and will bring together citizens and organisations from retail, manufacturing, local government, hospitality and across industry to demonstrate the impact of wasted food on people, on business, and on the planet.
The Council is asking residents to only buy what they need when ordering or buying their weekly food shops and think ahead to reduce the food that they waste. Some food items are inedible e.g. peelings, egg shells, meat carcasses etc. These items can be recycled as part of the Council’s weekly kerbside food waste scheme.
The majority of RCT residents are now recycling their leftovers and since January over 1800 tonnes of food waste has been collected and recycled - which when converted in to energy at the food waste recycling plant in Bryn Pica, Llwydcoed, generates enough energy to power over 180 homes.
If you’re not already signed up, you can find more information at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/foodwaste.
Thanks to the Council’s food waste recycling scheme and the separate food waste bins, it’s clear to see just how much food we throw away every day.
By keeping check on the amount of food we waste, you can think about portion sizes and the weekly shopping list and cut down on the food you buy and waste and save money.
In the UK we throw away at least £10 billion pounds worth of food each year which could have been eaten -
- We throw away 1.6 million untouched bananas every day.
- 1.3 million un-opened yoghurts each day.
- 600,000 whole uncooked eggs every day.
- 1.2 million un-touched sausages.
- 20 million slices of bread every day.
That’s a lot of sausage and egg sandwiches!
If everybody across the County Borough recycled their food waste, it would prevent 30% of waste going to in their black bags, as a third of what residents throw away is made up of food waste.
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Leisure and Heritage Services, said:
“The latest figures show that more residents than ever before are joining the food waste recycling scheme! We are delighted that so many people are seeing just how easy it is to recycle your food waste.
“We are committed to doing all we can to recycle as much as we possibly can and will continue to invest for the future to ensure we have high-quality vehicles and easy-to-use facilities that people rely upon to recycle.
“We have a dedicated food waste recycling plant based in Bryn Pica, Llwydcoed, which sees more food waste than ever before being converted in to enough energy to power homes.
“We want to succeed in partnership with our communities, which is why we provide an effective weekly kerbside recycling and food waste collection scheme that is free of charge to use, as well as community facilities and ongoing education and awareness raising on the subject.”
For more information about the Council’s Food Waste recycling scheme and to order a food waste caddy visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/foodwaste
Posted on 03/03/2021