The impact of food waste
Why it is important to recycle food waste:
- Richmond wastes over 15,000 tonnes of food each year, over 60% of which was avoidable
- Eliminating all this avoidable food waste would reduce Richmond’s carbon emissions by around 35,000 tonnes annually. That's equivalent to taking 25,000 cars off the road!
- The average UK family with children throws away £720 worth of food a year, that is £60 a month. All that food has to be replaced, meaning more shopping, more cooking and more expense
- Richmond households with weekly food recycling collections currently only recycle about one quarter of their recyclable food waste
- Food waste can easily be recycled producing biogas which is fed into the National Gas Grid as well as being used to power vehicles. It also produces a liquid 'digestate' which is used to fertilise farmland
- Around one-third of all edible food produced across the world is never eaten – enough food to feed 2 billion people
- Global food waste generates 22 million tonnes of greenhouse gases – that’s four times more than all aeroplanes put together!
- Food has a high moisture content which makes it unsuitable for disposal with other residual rubbish destined for incineration with energy recovery
Impact of waste on Climate Change
Watch Reducing our waste
Find out more about Richmond's Climate Emergency.
Up to: Food waste recycling
Updated: 28 April 2023
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