Waster Brits trash 4.4 Million Tons a Year

Posted on 11. Jul, 2008 by Forest in General Articles, General News, Recipes & Food, Saving Money & Finances, Tight Tips - Duncan Wilson

good waste Welcome to the first “Tight Tips”, a weekly guest post by a good friend Duncan Wilson of www.duncwilson.co.uk

It emerged this week that Britons throw away over 4 million tonnes (that’s 4.4 million tons!) of food every year. This vast amount of wastage has been calculated to add an approximate, but equally shocking, £420 to the average family’s annual shopping bill! That’s equivalent to $828.50, simply removed from your bank account and set fire to. Or flushed down the sewers. Or whatever.

Now, obviously, these are average figures and therefore only strictly apply to those who are stringently average, not to mention those obsessive about their averageness. If you think you could be above average, then the time is now to do something about it. Stocking up on the specials at the supermarket is absolutely fine (provided the food is tinned and not going to dry up or mould over in two days flat!), but you should really start to think before you open those three family sized jars of bolognaise sauce. You only have one kid! And one spouse (I should hope!), so where is the rest of it going? Don’t look at Bruno. He’s a dog. He only licks the meat out and leaves the sauce behind…

You get what I’m saying! If you have fruit in a bowl, grab a notepad and start a little log of how quickly it gets eaten and how much you throw away. Adjust your settings accordingly. If you buy bread, try and buy the freshly baked loaf-type that has a hard outer crust and comes in a paper bag. The outer crust helps keep the inside fresh AND the lack of plastic surrounding it reduces the ‘sweat-factor’, giving you great tasting toast days after purchase! When measuring rice, use a set of scales and teach yourself what the right portion for yourself is. Rice is one of the bummer-goods when it comes to reheating as it is really tough to tell whether it has become infected or not, your best bet is to get it right first time. If you buy spinach, try and give it half an hour of sunlight every couple of days, this will prolong its greenness just that little bit longer. If you have bananas, keep them in a separate fruit bowl, away from other fresh fruit and vegetables. Bananas actually cause other fruit and vegetables to ripen, and therefore go rotten, a lot faster than normal. That’s why they didn’t used to take them to sea in the old days, they’d wreck the whole ship’s stock!

Obviously this advice only goes to those who are above or on par with the average Englishman and I’m not for a second suggesting that you should be starving yourself! Take this advice on board and you could save yourself a whopping $828.50 per year! Tax free (if only!)

If you’re below average, then well done. Keep tipping away less and less and let me know when you reach zero!

I’ll be back same time next week with another ‘Tight Tip’.

Visit Love Food Hate Waste for more help and advice.

Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7492573.stm

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