Friday 30 November 2012
Public Services wants to help islanders make big savings by cutting down on the amount of food being thrown away.
The Department is promoting a new waste-busting initiative that aims to reduce the nearly 4,500 tonnes of kitchen waste produced by Guernsey households every year. And it is being launched in the run-up to Christmas, when potential savings of hundreds of pounds are likely to be particularly welcome.
The Love Food Hate Waste campaign features a website offering a whole range of handy tips, from making the most out of your freezer to controlling portion sizes. There will also be handy recipe cards, with tasty ideas for leftovers, and shopping advice to help reduce bills.
It is estimated the average household in Guernsey spends around £390 a month on food shopping. By cutting out some of the waste, many families could reduce this by as much as £50.
Public Services' is encouraging islanders to sign up to its Facebook or Twitter pages to receive regular updates and advice. They can register, and access recipes and other useful information on the main website, by visiting www.lovefoodhatewaste.gg.
Public Services Deputy Minister, Deputy Scott Ogier, said the Love Food Hate Waste initiative was about taking simple, practical steps to make real savings, and the timing was perfect.
'As part of the new waste strategy, we are very keen to target measures that can help to reduce the amount of waste we produce in the first place. What better place to start than in the kitchen, where most of us can probably make some savings?', he said.
'Christmas is an expensive time of the year for most households, and any savings that we can make will probably be most welcome.'
Local supermarkets are also lending their support to the campaign, and will be promoting it in-store in the coming weeks.
In the UK, it is estimated the average households spends around £480 a year on items that could be eaten but end up in the bin. Public Services Recycling Officer Tina Norman-Ross said the figure could be even more here, because food costs are higher.
'A lot of research has been done in the UK, looking in detail at how much food goes into the bin, what it is made up of, and why. It has also looked at the best ways to try and prevent this, which is where the Love Food Hate Waste campaign originated from,
' she said.
'We think there are many similarities here, so we want use that experience and try to repeat the success of the campaign here. The way they have done it is by putting food waste on the agenda for households, highlighting the very real savings that can be made, and offering really sensible, useful advice on how to make those savings.'
An analysis of local waste earlier this year found that on average island households throw out more than 170 kilograms of food waste every year. It includes everything from food scraps and vegetable peelings, to out of date products.
In the UK it is estimated that up to 60% of these products could have been eaten. In Guernsey, that would equate to more than 2,500 tonnes of food being needlessly thrown away.
