{"id":482,"date":"2018-10-15T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T09:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/?p=482"},"modified":"2018-10-15T09:56:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T08:56:12","slug":"cutting-food-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/2018\/10\/15\/cutting-food-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is cutting food waste so difficult?"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 16th is World Food Day<\/a>, shining a light on the UN\u2019s desire to create a world where by 2030 there is zero hunger.\u00a0 Achieving this ambition will require a significant reduction in food waste. In this piece, guest blogger Trewin Restorick, CEO of environmental charity Hubbub,<\/a> discusses the challenge of reducing food waste, and describes some of their initiatives to tackle the problem. Trewin will be a speaker at the Food Waste Realities<\/a> event taking place at the University of Bath on 16th October.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the UK alone it is estimated that \u00a37.3 million of food waste was binned in 2015 \u2013 60% of which was avoidable.\u00a0 The cost of this food waste for a typical family adds up to a staggering \u00a3700 a month.<\/p>\n

With people able to save money and do their bit for the environment it would seem a no brainer that households would do all they can to cut food waste, but this is not the case.\u00a0 Indeed, last year food waste from households slightly increased.\u00a0 Why is this?<\/p>\n

One of the main reasons is that most households simply don\u2019t believe they are wasting food.\u00a0 All those small actions of throwing away uneaten food, discarding mushy salad bags or chucking sprouting potatoes don\u2019t add up in our minds to a big impact \u2013 even though the evidence suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n

If people do realise they are throwing away food, there are a number of other factors that prevent change.\u00a0 There is growing evidence that, despite the plethora of cooking programmes, we are losing culinary skills and this reduces our ability to create meals from the bits and pieces left in our fridges.\u00a0 People are highly confused by food labelling resulting in food being thrown away that is good to eat, while safety concerns mean that food that could be frozen is also discarded.<\/p>\n

Fast-paced lifestyles make planning difficult \u2013 we may have the best intentions when buying that healthy salad bag but in a busy social week there is a high chance that we didn\u2019t quite get around to eating it.\u00a0 We also want to make sure that friends and family are well-fed meaning that we over buy and over cook.\u00a0 This is particularly true at times like Christmas when food waste spikes.<\/p>\n

What then can be done to create change?\u00a0 This is a question that the charity Hubbub has been seeking to address over the past four years.\u00a0 Given the complexity of the challenge we have realised that academically proven behaviour change techniques are required and have been experimenting with different approaches.\u00a0 Some have been successful and others less so: here is what we have learned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Smart Bin<\/strong><\/p>\n

We wanted to see what happened if people saw what food they were throwing away and the cost of it.\u00a0 Smart bins were put into a six households in Derbyshire.\u00a0 The impact was immediate with an average 67% cut in food waste in four months.\u00a0 Confronted with hard data, households quickly changed habits and buying patterns.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this intervention proved intrusive for households and was expensive. So whilst this was an effective approach, it is currently not scalable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Seasonal Campaigns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Food waste increases during times of celebration such as Halloween and Christmas.\u00a0 Hubbub has discovered that campaigns specifically targeted at this time of year are effective.\u00a0 Our #PumpkinRescue campaign<\/a>\u00a0highlighted that 18,000 tonne of pumpkins are thrown away each year at Halloween and provided simple recipes to help people avoid this.\u00a0 The #FestiveFreeze messaging encouraged people to freeze leftovers at Christmas rather than bin them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Hubbub's #pumpkinrescue campaign<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cooking skills<\/strong><\/p>\n

The loss of cooking skills is a concern and Hubbub has sought to address this by promoting inter-generational cooking classes.\u00a0 The #KitchenLove campaign<\/a>\u00a0has built two community kitchens and provides lessons enabling grandparents to share cooking skills with their grandchildren.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Community Action<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bringing communities together has been found to reduce food waste.\u00a0 Community Fridges<\/a> \u00a0collect perishable food from retailers for redistribution to local households.\u00a0 Already 36 Community Fridges have been established, each saving over half a tonne of food a month.\u00a0 These Fridges have become social hubs encouraging people to share ideas and knowledge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Date Labels<\/strong><\/p>\n

Research has shown there is significant confusion about what food labels mean, particularly \u2018Best Before\u2019 resulting in edible food being thrown away.\u00a0 Gradually retailers are removing these labels<\/a> and are starting to educate their customers about the meaning of different labels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hubbub\u2019s work has proved that it is possible to reduce food waste through targeted and concerted interventions.\u00a0 To date, this knowledge has not been brought together into a coherent campaign backed by all the key stakeholders such as retailers, manufacturers and local authorities.<\/p>\n

Testing the impact of this long-term strategic approach has just begun in Norfolk and Suffolk with a #FoodSavvy campaign<\/a> running across both counties.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see whether this approach works and it is to be hoped that World Food Day will see more campaigns like this develop.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Trewin Restorick, along with Jeff Davison, Distributive Sales Manager at Unilever and Tim Rawlings, Project Officer at B&NES Council, will be part of a panel discussing ways to reduce food waste at Food Waste Realities<\/a>. This is the launch event of the Big Picture Challenge<\/a>, a 5-week challenge for students who will work in teams across departments to generate and test ideas to tackle food waste.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Header image by rawpixel<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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