What is Household food waste?
Household food waste, also called ‘post consumer’ food waste, is produced by households and disposed of through the municipal waste collection system.
This is distinct from ‘supply chain’ food waste which is produced by food and grocery companies (e.g. primary producers, manufacturers, retailers and foodservice companies) and disposed of as commercial or industrial waste.
Types of Household food waste
There are two main types of household food waste:
- Largely inedible waste from in-home food preparation activities (peelings, trimmings, bones, tea bags etc)
- Edible waste (‘plate’ waste; ‘out of date’ food etc)
Amounts of Household food wasted
WRAP estimates that on average nearly one third of all the food purchased by households is wasted, of which approximately half is inedible and half is edible. This equates to 6.7 million tonnes of food waste produced by UK households per year – about one fifth of the UK’s household waste.
The large majority of households generate some food waste (even if this is inedible waste which is domestically composted). In terms of edible waste, WRAP concludes that high food wasters are more likely to be:
- Younger working people (aged 16-34)
- Families with school age children
Costs of Household food waste
In monetary terms between £250 and £400 worth of edible food per year is thrown away per household in the UK. But this is only one element of the monetary cost. To this must be added the costs of disposing to landfill (charged back to households through council taxes). There are also environmental costs (see below).
Environmental Impacts of Household food waste
Recent IGD Consumer research indicates the high proportions of food waste going into ordinary dustbins against other disposal methods.
Food Disposal Methods
Source: IGD 2007
These findings are supported by WRAP research which concludes that household food waste currently accounts for 19% of the UK’s overall household waste, but represents between 25-30% of collected waste by local authorities (Source: WRAP). Proportionally more household food waste is disposed of in landfill than other types.
There are a number of reasons for the high percentage going to landfill: domestic composting food waste is complicated by the safety issues around meat based foods, and ‘recycling’ is not an option. So households tend to see disposal in black bins as being the ‘default’ for many types of food waste.
The environmental impact of food waste disposed of in landfill is large. As food decays it can produce methane (a significant greenhouse gas). In addition the energy used in production, processing, transportation etc of most foods is significant – this is now often thought of in ‘carbon equivalent’ terms.
Reasons for Household food waste
IGD consumer research identifies a large number of reasons for households wasting food.
Reasons for Throwing Food Away
Source IGD, 2007
What can be done about food waste?
The following graph summarises IGD Consumer Research results into consumers’ suggestions for managing household food waste, in terms of the ‘waste hierarchy’.
Managing Food Waste
Source: IGD, 2007
Whilst clearly a lot can be done to reduce household food waste, it is important to note that food waste coming from food preparation in the home is often an inevitable part of home cooking. Whilst households might reduce their inedible food waste (peelings etc) by purchasing readily prepared meals, this would have an impact up-stream by increasing production of peelings etc in the supply chain.
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