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Find out what Surrey residents waste £5 million a week on
Every week, Surrey residents spend nearly £5 million in total on food shopping that goes to waste. And as the cost-of-living crisis continues to impact, a new campaign is aiming to help families reduce food waste and save nearly £750 a year.
Own Your Impact is the latest initiative of the Surrey Environment Partnership (SEP), made up of Surrey County Council and the 11 district and borough councils in the county.
Residents who visit SEP’s website page on food waste reduction will find tips on making small changes that make a big difference, such as:
• Plan meals and food shopping in advance – use an app to help make sure you only buy what you need;
• Store your food right – keep your food fresher for longer by finding out the best ways to store it; and
• Know your portions – avoid cooking too much by measuring out the correct serving sizes.
SEP’s website also features lots of other advice on reducing food waste, links to useful apps and online resources and leftover recipes for all occasions.
As well as easing pressure on wallets, reduced food waste also helps the planet. Producing food is a resource intensive process, which creates greenhouse gases and uses large amounts of water and land. When food goes uneaten, it means that all the effort and resource that went into getting that food to your plate was wasted.
Surrey Environment Partnership Chair, Neil Dallen, said: “At a time when we’re all trying to watch what we spend and look after the planet, these tips on reducing food waste can help us do both. Individual changes don’t need to be big or difficult to do but together, across the county, they can make a huge difference. So, I’d encourage everyone in Surrey to visit the SEP website and reduce their food waste now.”
Surrey’s food waste facts
• In 2020-21, Surrey residents produced 93,414 tonnes of food waste. That’s about the same weight as nine Eiffel Towers!
• Only 46.2% of it was put into food caddies to be recycled with the rest put in rubbish bins.
• If all the food waste that was put into rubbish bins in 2020-21 had been recycled, it would have saved Surrey councils an incredible £4 million! This is because it costs councils less to recycle food waste that it does to treat it as rubbish.
• 100% of the food waste put into caddies in Surrey was recycled in the UK in 2020-21. The waste was turned into soil improver, which is used on local farms, and biogas, which creates electricity.
• All Surrey councils have collected separate food waste since 2012 with partnership working across the county playing a major role in its introduction.