UK may be worst in world for waste

[eve]

The British may waste more food than any other nation, throwing out 30-40% of all the produce they buy and grow each year, according to research. Read more in today's "Guardian" special report. http://society.guardian.co.uk/environment/news/0,14129,1460299,00.html

[cedarblue]

i heard about this on the radio yesterday - depressing but good article.

why are farmers paid subsidies to grow crops which will never be harvested just ploughed back into the ground? :mad:

the article mentions about government saying that a lot of the waste food could be used to compost or even to produce energy - i hope they are looking into/developing this idea if they are saying it is possible :mad:

so much food going to waste and so many needy and hungry people around the uk who it could benefit. :mad:

i remember watching a 'cook on the wild side' programme a few years ago, hosted by hugh fearnley-whittingstall, where a group of 'hippies' in london 'rescued' bread and food from dumpsters and other waste areas outside restaurants and shops and produced great vegan feasts from it all to feed folk. :)

its a shaming article to my mind :(

[Stu]

Well I think the recycling programme in this country is frankly shambolic. I've always thought this.

In the UK, it's actually DIFFICULT to recycle. You have to really go out of your way. Why the hell can't recyclable refuse be collected in the same way that other waste is?

I'm glad to say that they are currently making a bit of a push for recycling here in Newcastle, but even that only amounts to a handful of recycling stations. Recycling needs to be made EASY for people; otherwise, they simply won't be bothered to do it.

[Spiral]

i remember watching a 'cook on the wild side' programme a few years ago, hosted by hugh fearnley-whittingstall, where a group of 'hippies' in london 'rescued' bread and food from dumpsters and other waste areas outside restaurants and shops and produced great vegan feasts from it all to feed folk. :)

People that do this are called freegans and there is a growing freegan movement. Not all freegans are vegans though!

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/cash/story/0,6903,1091014,00.html

http://freegan.info/

[snaffler]

on BBC News 24 today
Britian throws away 20 billions pounds worth of food per year that counts everything supermarkets, cafes, small shops etc and the public.

That is enough food to bring 150 million people out of starvation for ever. :mad:
SHOCKING is and understatement

[Seaside]

I remember when I used to work for a grocery store in the bakery department. We always had to remove food that didn't sell by its sell-by date and throw it away. We couldn't give it away as day-old stuff, any employee caught removing it from the garbage after it was thrown away would be fired for stealing, and the dumpsters were kept indoors so no one outside could remove and make use of the perfectly good food either. :mad:

[tails4wagging]

I knew some years ago of a nursing home that used to get M&S food that was left over after the days takings.

Also my first job on leaving school was at a pet shop which (horrors!) had a fruit bat and a monkey and my job was to go round the fruit market for old very ripe fruit!!