MAKING FOOD GO FURTHER A JOINT AMBITION FOR A ZERO FOOD WASTE BRITAIN. Inspiring change

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1 MAKING FOOD GO FURTHER A JOINT AMBITION FOR A ZERO FOOD WASTE BRITAIN Inspiring change

2 Making Food Go Further A Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain INTRODUCTION Unilever is working with its charitable partner Hubbub and industry partners, to lead a UKwide movement helping people to value food and reduce food waste. A Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain outlines five key focus areas which we believe will tackle the issue of food waste and encourage more sustainable lifestyles. It has been created in consultation with 240 businesses and considers the views of the UK public through polling a sample of more than 2,000 householders. We see our Joint Ambition as a catalyst to addressing the issue of food waste. To turn our Joint Ambition into reality we will strive to: 1. Identify further evidence of the benefits to the UK economy in tackling food waste 2. Secure further support from a diverse range of organisations and people. 3. Support a range of initiatives which will help households in reducing their food waste. 4. Engage with government, exploring the role they can play to support implementation. 2

3 Making Food Go Further A Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain WHY FOOD WASTE? The UK produces 10 million tonnes of food waste annually, of which 7 million tonnes comes from households. Solutions must range from helping households reduce the 4.2 million tonnes of avoidable waste, through to creating a more coherent national infrastructure to handle the 1.6 million tonnes of unavoidable food waste created each year. The financial burden of food waste is felt throughout the UK economy. The annual cost of avoidable food waste is 12.5 billion. Of the 4.7mt thrown out by households and collected, less than 15% is recycled (excluding home composting), leading to estimated annual disposal costs of around 400 million 1. Environmentally, it is estimated that avoidable food waste is responsible for 17 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year - approximately 3% of the UK s domestic emissions. Socially, the sharp rise in use of food banks has shown that some households in the UK are struggling to pay everyday bills and that redistributing surplus edible food can help alleviate the pressures they face. With the UK s growing population and the evident economic, environmental and social costs, it is essential that we work together to find more sustainable ways of managing and reducing our food waste. All stats based on WRAP reports except 1 is from Local Government Association Local Waste Review June

4 Making Food Go Further A Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain VIEWS FROM THE PUBLIC & INDUSTRY The significance of food waste is recognised by the wider public. Our public consultation discovered that: 99% of the 2,078 people polled in September 2015 thought addressing food waste is important. A strong majority (84%) believe that access to recycling facilities should be the same across the whole country. Two thirds (67%) think ways to reduce waste should be added to the national curriculum. More than half (57%) said they would recycle more if there was a consistent national communications campaign. The message from the 240 businesses we consulted was that cutting food waste requires changes across the entire food system and that the burden of responsibility cannot be placed exclusively in the hands of citizens. We need a collaborative approach, working with government, business, local authorities, charities and households to ensure there is a coherent approach to reducing food waste. Consistent national messaging is required, making it clear that valuing food and avoiding food waste in the first instance has to be the priority ahead of responsible disposal. There was widespread agreement that we need a consistent nationwide food waste infrastructure that supports all households with the collection of food waste. There was agreement that more needs to be done to create an informed, educated and engaged public. This includes supporting national campaigns such as Love Food Hate Waste and educating households through the use of blogs, social media and key influencers for instance celebrities. 4

5 Making Food Go Further A Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain The research clearly indicated a need for a more collaborative approach to addressing this important issue. Unilever, in collaboration with industry partners, will contribute to creating a UK-wide movement of change. Our Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain builds on the consultation we have undertaken as well as insights from a roundtable discussion held with experts from different sectors. SOUR FACTS ABOUT FOOD 10Mt food wasted every year Around 400 Million in disposal 7Mt food & drink waste from households Avoidable food waste worth 12.5 Billion costs. 3% of UK s domestic emissions. 4.2Mt could be avoided 1.6Mt is inedible but compostable All stats based on WRAP reports PEOPLE WANT A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH 84% want uniform recycling facilities 57% 67% want a national communications campaign want ways to reduce waste added to the national curriculum 5

6 Making Food Go Further A Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain MAKING FOOD GO FURTHER A Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain Unilever, together with Hubbub and industry partners have created a Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain after close consultation with industry experts. It sets out five collaborative steps which food and waste industries believe need to be taken to help households better understand the value of food and reduce food waste 1. COLLABORATE 2. KEEP IT SIMPLE AND PRACTICAL 3. BE CONSISTENT 4. BUILD SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE 5. USE SCALE 6

7 1 COLLABORATE We believe that government (national and local), businesses, academic bodies and NGOs need to work together to help people value the food we produce and help them waste less through initiatives such as Courtauld Our consultation revealed that there is scope to improve the strategy for addressing food waste in the UK. There are some effective local initiatives but it is difficult to get an overall picture of exactly why food is wasted, what activities will make the biggest difference and what collaboration is required. Our consultation led us to conclude that key stakeholders need to come together and accelerate the strategy to ensure people value the food we produce and waste less. Indications from our consultation and polling show there is a genuine desire to address food waste collaboratively and any lead from government would generate the much needed support and resources from a wide range of organisations through initiatives such as Courtauld One of the respondents to our consultation succinctly summed up what the ambition should be for this greater collaboration: We need to connect the public to food production, building a greater understanding of the intense resources which are required to produce our food and what it ultimately costs to waste it, to ourselves and the environment. 7

8 2 We KEEP IT SIMPLE AND PRACTICAL need to work collaboratively to establish a simple and practical approach which extracts the maximum value from the food we produce, following the waste hierarchy. We produce food to be eaten by people. This simple fact should never be overlooked as we seek to extract the maximum value from food. Our consultation strongly reinforced the view that we should reduce waste in the first instance. This means ensuring as much food as possible is eaten by people and only after this should responsible forms of disposal be considered. Respondents of our consultation agreed that too much emphasis is placed lower down the waste hierarchy, which focuses on looking at ways of preventing food waste from going to landfill rather than exploring ways of maximising its value. There was debate about how best to communicate this message to the public with a strong feeling that terms such as waste hierarchy should be avoided as it is too technical and not easily understood. Organisations we consulted with told us: There should be an emphasis on preventing waste rather than reacting to it. Waste reduction should be designed into products and cycles from day one production. Please don t call it the waste hierarchy. Just make it a common sense approach to food. 8

9 3 BE CONSISTENT Simple, consistent communication is required to improve people s understanding of the financial, social and environmental value of food. A common theme from the consultation was that we are starting to lose our understanding of the wider social and environmental value of our food. There was a belief that if people fully understood the amount of time, care and energy that is spent getting food to our tables then they would be more careful to avoid food waste. It was agreed that there needs to be a strong, simple and consistent message to build this understanding. Having a collaborative approach was also viewed as essential as this would add credibility and ensure consistency. WRAP s Love Food Hate Waste campaign was frequently referenced as a strong example of how this could work in practice. Our consultation told us: Messages need to come from those who have the public s respect on food - chefs and cooks, children s cookery programmes, food companies (including small ones), retailers. Like seat belts, smoking, crossing the road, drink driving. A single focussed, repeated campaign will work better than lots of complicated multi-issue campaigns. 9

10 4 BUILD SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE Together we need to help people gain the skills and knowledge that will help them maximise the value of the food they buy and support initiatives such as Love Food Hate Waste and Fresher for Longer. There was consensus between the public and companies that we are in danger of losing skills and knowledge that help us to reduce food waste. There was concern that kitchen skills are diminishing which decreases our ability to find creative ways to use up food that might otherwise be wasted. It was questioned whether hints and tips from older generations who had to cope with greater food restrictions are being passed onto younger people. There was also agreement that poor awareness on what date labels really mean is causing food to be thrown away prematurely. There was a feeling that kitchen skills need to be taught at an early age and that this could be done through schools and through the use of blogs, social media and key influencers such as celebrities. People we consulted with told us: Tackling the issue at its source so that it becomes a normal behaviour from childhood onwards. Kitchen skills education needs to equip people with the basics of making meals out of leftovers e.g. shepherds pie out of a roast dinner, soups out of left over vegetables etc. Food waste is generation-related - those growing up immediately post war will have been inculcated with the value of food. Modern generations have not. 10

11 5 USE SCALE We need to establish a Charter on Food Waste which identifies a consistent nationwide food waste collection infrastructure. Whilst most of our consultation responses urged us to concentrate on stopping food being wasted in the first instance there was agreement that there needs to be a consistent national food waste collection infrastructure for inedible food. We believe a national approach will bring wider benefits to the UK economy. The current myriad of different recycling schemes in different areas creates public confusion and we feel must add to cost and lack of efficiency. We believe there has to be more standardisation which will improve efficiency and make communication clearer, easier and more effective. We believe a national approach will bring wider benefits to the UK economy. IN CONCLUSION Our consultation process told us: A uniform waste and recycling service across Britain would make use of the service much simpler and would allow national advertising and policies. We need to follow examples in other countries in the EU where a single approach to recycling has been adopted nationwide removing doubt, ambiguity and poor practice. 11

12 Making Food Go Further A Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain Our consultations and polling concludes that food waste is recognised as a challenge that needs to be addressed for financial, social and environmental reasons. There is a clear desire for government (national and local), businesses, academic bodies and NGOs to work collaboratively to find sustainable solutions to solving food waste. Establishing a coalition of committed stakeholders will help create a more coherent solution and encourage wider support for practical initiatives such as Courtauld Unilever is committed to playing its part in creating a movement and working with other organisations and initiatives such as Courtauld 2025 and Love Food Hate Waste to establish a zero food waste Britain. 12

13 Making Food Go Further A Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain ABOUT UNILEVER Unilever is one of the UK s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with 40 UK brands spanning 14 categories. Our products are present in 98% of homes in the UK and are used by over 2 billion people globally on a daily basis. At Unilever our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace. Framing this ambition is the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan which will help us to double the size of our business while reducing our environmental footprint and increasing positive soial impact. As part of our Plan one of our commitments is to halve the waste associated with the disposal of our products by To achieve this we are not only developing new technologies to minimise our waste across our supply chain, but also encouraging consumers to recycle and live more sustainably. ABOUT HUBBUB Inspiring change Hubbub is a charity taking a fresh approach to environmental communications by focussing on people s passions such as fashion, food, homes and sport. We avoid doom and gloom lecturing about carbon footprints and instead are positive, sociable, collaborative and open to all. Why? We ve listened to the latest scientific thinking and believe that we need to change our lifestyles to protect the environment. Let s do it in a way that is fun, saves money and brings people together. ABOUT WRAP WRAP works in partnership with governments, businesses, trade bodies, local authorities, communities and individuals to deliver practical solutions to improve resource efficiency. WRAP s Courtauld Commitment 2025 is an ambitious voluntary agreement that brings together organisations across the food system to make food and drink production and consumption more sustainable including tackling food waste. WRAP also works with partners to increase recycling, and leads the consumer campaigns RecycleNow and Love Food Hate Waste to help individuals make changes. 13

14 Inspiring change