Saturday marked the 2011 edition of our annual Green Issue. It’s fashionable to point the finger at the food industry for the UK’s £12bn food waste mountain (as London mayor Boris Johnson continues to do). But there’s far more to it than promotions and excess packaging.

New research carried out by YouGov on behalf of The Grocer produced some surprising results. A lack of recycling facilities is identified as a major factor in the amount of food waste being sent to landfill.

Of course, shoppers’ attitudes remain key. As Adam Leyland points out in this week’s leader, if the environment was the most important consideration for consumers, The Co-op would be picking up market share and Tesco would be basing its latest marketing onslaught on eco-stores and carbon footprints, rather than £500m of price cuts.

You can read the full results of our YouGov survey here. It’s exclusive to online subscribers of thegrocer.co.uk.

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