FOOD WASTE
Make your
food go
further this
Christmas
A lavish feast is the centre piece
to most people’s celebrations,
but did you know that the
average UK family throws away
more food at Christmas than at
any other time? Deborah Dickey
finds out more…
T
he average UK family throws
away around 10% of their
Christmas dinner, according
to recent research. Across the
country, this adds up to the equivalent
of £64million worth of wasted food.
Too much of this ends
up in people’s black
refuse sacks, and
around one third
of all rubbish in
west London
consists of food
waste alone.
The council
has to pay a tax
based on the weight
14
around ealing
Winter 2015/16
of the waste it collects and takes to
landfill – which means that some of
your valuable council tax is being
spent on paying for throwing away
perfectly good food. Food leftovers
can often be reused with a bit
of imagination – and
any unusable food
waste should
always be
recycled in
the food
waste bin
and not
chucked in
the general
rubbish.
MORE IS THROWN AWAY AT
CHRISTMAS
Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet
member for transport, environment
and leisure, said: “A staggering, jawdropping, one-third of the contents
of our black bags across west London
is food waste. That’s food that you’ve
paid for and are then also paying
to be thrown away. With a bit of
planning and some imagination, we
can make the most of the food we
have; and if we do have food waste
we should recycle it in food waste
bins so it can be taken to be turned
into valuable electricity. By leaving it
in black bags you are wasting money