Tips for reducing food waste

PLANNING meals, working with leftovers and boosting your food storage containers can all help reduce food waste.

Although remains of meals can now be collected from the doorstep, Reading Borough Council has been working with WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), to try and reduce the amount that this thrown away, saying that 4.5 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away each year by UK households.

Food waste recycling came in three years ago and has helped increase recycling rates from 34% to 50%.

But the council is keen to do more, and has produced some advice that might make a difference.

■ Planning meals and writing a shopping list can ensure people buy only what is needed and will be used. The council says that 25% of food wasted in households is due to cooking, preparing or serving too much – this costs UK households £3.5billion each year

■ Donate any unwanted, unopened food items to food banks such as Readifood (www.readifood.org. uk). Alternatively, use food swapping apps or websites.

■ Use a slow cooker which is energy efficient and good for batch cooking which means you’ll waste less and have future meals already prepped

■ Small reusable containers means leftovers can be lunches the next day.

■ Storing your food in the right place will help it to stay fresher for longer. Make sure to freeze any food that you won’t need until later in the week and keep your fruit and veg in the fridge

■ Try the SuperCook website (www.supercook.com) to use what you’ve got left. Enter your leftover items on the website and receive a meal suggestion and recipe for what you can make with your excess food items. Big Oven (www.bigoven.com) also has lots of recipe ideas to use up your leftovers.

■ Make sure to put your rubbish in the correct bin. Recycling food waste can help stop it going to landfill where it rots and releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. It is also cheaper to recycle food waste, with every lorry load of food composted instead of being sent to landfill saving £100. Recycled food waste can then be turned into fertiliser for farming, and electricity to power homes.

If you’ve abandoned recycling food you can always hop back on – and the Council is encouraging everyone to do so. Anyone needing a new food waste kitchen caddy or outdoor food waste bin can contact the Council (www.reading.gov.uk/ waste-and-recycling/ order-a-bin-or-bag) to receive replacements for free. Liners can be collected for free from our libraries and leisure centres.

Residents can put all forms of cooked and uncooked food in their food waste bin including fruit and veg, meat and fish, rice, pasta, bread, dairy, egg shells, plate scrapings and tea bags and coffee grounds.

Used cooking oil - in a sealed plastic bottle can also be placed inside food waste bins for recycling.

Cllr Karen Rowland, Reading Borough Council’s lead member for environmental services and community safety, said: “Joining in with food waste recycling is a great way to do your bit for the environment, and Reading residents are really excited about participating.

“We want to reach out to those of you, however, who have fallen off the recycling habit, or are having issues, to join back in the recycling routine with your neighbours.

“If this is you, please contact the Council on 0118 937 3787, or via the website to make arrangements to get back in the groove on food recycling.

“For those of you well into recycling, take advantage of our tips to improve your own food recycling, save yourself money and be smarter about what you buy and find ways to make your food last longer.”

■ More information about food waste recycling can be found at: www.reading.gov.uk