UK prepares for Zero Waste Week

People across the UK are being urged to take up a waste reduction pledge as part of the sixth annual National Zero Waste Week, beginning on Monday (2 September). 

Partnered with the Rubbish Diet, a waste reduction challenge, Zero Waste Week asks members of the public to become ‘Zero Heroes’ and make a pledge to reduce their waste production with the aim of making better use of resources and saving money. 

This year’s theme, ‘Use it Up!’, centres on food waste, and members of the public are being asked to re-evaluate their habits to see if they can ‘slim their bins’ and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. 

Suggested pledges include:

• ‘wising up’ on portion control;
• resisting ‘buy one get one free’ offers;
• using up stored food;
• sharing a zero waste recipe;
• buy loose food items, rather than packaged;
• meal planning;
• ‘ignoring’ best before dates;
• not to shop when hungry; and
• considering ‘leftovers’ as ‘ingredients’.

Those pledging to take action will receive daily emails to ‘keep [them] accountable’ and could also be entered into a prize draw. 

‘We need to value food as a precious resource’

According to WRAP’s food waste branch, Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) – supporters of Zero Waste Week – UK households throw away 7.2 million tonnes of food and drink every year, ‘the majority of which could have been eaten’. LFHW estimates that this costs the UK around £12 billion a year.

Zero Waste Week supporters are urged to visit the LFHW website as it provides ‘valuable, entertaining, and useful information, from fantastic recipes made from leftovers to proper food storage’. 

Speaking to Resource, Zero Waste Week founder Rachelle Strauss, said: "I chose food waste as the theme for zero waste week for several reasons.

"First, food waste is an economic issue - the average householder throws away £50 per month of food while it costs the food industry an estimated £5 billion per year. Second it's an environmental issue - there is so much embedded energy in food from water to fertilisers to transportation, storage and packaging that it's a crime to waste it. Finally, it's rapidly becoming a moral issue; with one in eight people in the world going to bed hungry, and with future food security at stake we need to value food as a precious resource, not treat it as a disposable commodity. 

“Zero Waste Week gives participants the opportunity to be part of the solution instead of the problem. We can all learn something new, have some fun and do some good."

Find out more about National Zero Waste Week 2013.