It’s been 12 months since The Grocer launched our ambitious campaign to tackle the 1.9 million tonnes of food being wasted by UK food and drink firms. And we’ve been busy. From investigations to lobbying government to getting stuck in volunteering at FareShare, we’ve put waste firmly at the top of our agenda. So what have we achieved…?
The problem
1. 1.9 million tonnes of food surplus going to waste
2. Equivalent to a loss of £1.9bn for the industry
3. Or 525 million meals
4. And, crucially, 56% of this is avoidable
5. Only 47,000 tonnes is being redistributed
Our goals
1. To double the amount of food redistributed to 100,000 tonnes by 2018
2. To achieve greater engagement, transparency and co-operation among industry
3. To lobby government for incentives to encourage redistribution
Major milestones
● 40 signatories to Courtauld 2025 agreed to double food waste redistribution to charities by 2020, equivalent to an extra 60 million meals
● In September 2016 Sainsbury’s revealed its food waste figures for the first time, only the second supermarket to do so after Tesco started the ball rolling in 2013
● The FSA launched a crucial inquiry into best- before dates following calls from The Grocer and experts to simplify confusing labels
● In April an EFRA select committee report called for a national target on food waste, demanded all supermarkets reveal their food waste data and called for a review into tax mechanisms that might encourage greater redistribution
● After languishing towards the bottom of our rankings, Lidl stepped up and announced its first food redistribution scheme
● Tesco upped redistribution across its stores by 148% and set an ambitious target that no edible food would be wasted by its stores by 2017
● The law was changed to allow pre-packed food to go to redistribution beyond its use-by date, saving an estimated 2,000 tonnes of sandwiches from the bin
Our work
500+ people watched our live video webinar featuring Unilever, Tesco, FareShare and Company Shop
All 24 journalists spent a day volunteering at FareShare’s London depot
22 in-depth features
20 opinion pieces
100+ news stories
5.2 million have used our hashtag on Twitter
45 CEOs have pledged their support while Tesco has signed up as our official retail sponsor and Unilever our official supplier sponsor
Feel inspired?
Then help us in our fight against food waste. Sign up to support our aims by emailing wastenotwantnot@thegrocer.co.uk. Send us a tweet or help us share our work using the hashtag #wastenotwantnot. Or pop us your views to letters@thegrocer.co.uk. And if you’ve already pledged your support then don’t go quiet on us now. Keep us updated on your efforts using all the methods above.
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