A recipe to end food wastage
ALMOST A THIRD OF ALL FOOD PRODUCED GOES TO WASTE. TO HELP TACKLE THIS, SAINSBURY’S PLANS TO HALVE ITS FOOD WASTE BY 2030
Sainsbury’s is making a meal out of food waste. Or, to be more precise, 149,893 meals…
That’s the staggering amount of surplus, unsold but still edible food that the supermarket has been able to redistribute to local communities across Britain since August this year with its partner Neighbourly.
The drive is part of the retailer’s ambitious plans to combat the food waste mountain in Britain – all 9.5 million tonnes of it. It’s estimated that more than 6.4 million tonnes of that food could have been eaten – that’s enough to feed the entire UK population for 11 weeks.
And a UN report estimated that, globally, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year – nearly one third of all food produced for human consumption.
Sainsbury’s has pledged to halve its food waste by 2030, while at the same time helping to address the record levels of food poverty and food bank use in Britain. Earlier this year it partnered with Neighbourly, an organisation that helps over 17,000 charities, schools, homeless centres and breakfast clubs co-ordinate daily collections of surplus food from their local Sainsbury’s store.
“Getting surplus food to community causes is win-win. We’re helping to make sure as much unsold food as possible is put to the best use while combating the environmental impact related to wasted food,” says Neighbourly’s CEO Steve Butterworth.
“S ai n sb u r y ’ s is committed to local action and we’re pleased to be scaling up our partnership to help forge collaboration between stores and their neighbourhood charities.”
In another initiative, bread, fruit and veg that are just past their sell-by date and can’t therefore be donated are turned into animal feed, with 8000 tonnes of unsold bread used to make animal feed for British farms last year.
And Sainsbury’s has found some very inventive ways of delivering on its ambitious target – unsold bananas are even used to make cakes and banana bread sold within its in-store bakeries!
This is just part of Sainsbury’s wider environmental commitment, having set a target of becoming net zero in its own operations by 2035.
Since 2012, the business has invested £320million implementing over 3,100 climate and energy-saving initiatives, including the use of electric refrigerated trailers, in-store recycling systems for flexible plastics, and planting 4.3 million native trees with the Woodland Trust. It plans to plant 1.5 million more by 2025, with the potential to mitigate 375,000 tonnes of C02 – all of which is helping to make Sainsbury’s one of Britain’s greenest grocers. “Managing food waste has been a long-standing priority for us,” says Ruth Cranston, Sainsbury’s group head of corporate responsibility & sustainability. “In 2013 we were the first retailer to send zero waste to landfill.
“Food waste is a significant issue and there are very clear social, economic and environmental reasons to act, and for all of us to do what we can to reduce it. We are committed to collaborating globally, nationally and locally.”
To learn more about how Sainsbury’s is working to be better for the planet, visit about.sainsburys.co.uk/sustainability