Stop wasting food

Food waste makes up a large proportion (over 30%) of the waste people put in their black bins, but a lot of it can be prevented and the rest can be composted, reducing its environmental impact.

Wasting food feeds climate change. When we throw away food we also waste the valuable resources that went into making it, including water, land and greenhouse gases. We throw away about 710,000 tonnes of potatoes every year. If we could stop that, it would prevent about 330,000 tonnes of CO2 from getting into the atmosphere!

There are lots of easy ways to stop wasting food:

• Visit Love Food Hate Waste for tips and advice, or follow them on social media.
• Get your fridge and meals organised with the Kitche app which helps you use things up in time and suggests recipes.
• Share your surplus food or collect from others using the Olio sharing app.
• Plan your meals – check your cupboards and fridge and make a list before you shop.
• Freeze food before it’s past its best.
• Turn your fridge temperature down to below 5°C to keep foods like milk fresher for longer.
• Get creative in the kitchen to use up food that you would otherwise waste. Banana bread and bread pudding are two tasty ways to use up leftovers, but there are many more!
• Buy heavily discounted ‘rescued’ meals from local businesses before they go to waste with the Too Good To Go app.
• Find out more about local projects working to prevent food waste. These include Cambridge Sustainable Food and Cottenham Eco Eats. 

Compost food waste at home

The best way to recycle raw fruit and vegetable waste like peelings or stalks is to set up a compost bin or heap at home. You get compost for your garden and no energy is used to collect or process the waste.

• Visit Recycle Now to find out more about composting.
• Order a compost bin

Put food waste in your green bin

Visit our Food waste and paper liners page to find out more about recycling food waste in your green bin.