It's Food Waste Action Week

The borough council will be visiting local schools with our walking and talking food caddy, as well as distributing free food caddies and liners to parents. The Lily team have handed out free food caddies and liners at their Food for Thought event in Downham Market. Social media messages will remind residents of the importance of using their weekly food waste collections.

Food Waste Action Week is the flagship annual event delivered by WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste. The campaign helps households develop the tools they need to cut food waste at home. This year the borough council will once again take the message on the road by visiting two local schools to highlight the importance of using your caddy for food waste but also trying to reduce the amount of waste in the first place.

Cllr Sandra Squire, Cabinet member for Environment and Coastal, said:

“Food waste costs the average family of four £1,000 every year. Our team are taking to the road again to encourage residents to use their weekly food caddy. Collecting food waste in caddies is the most environmentally friendly thing you can do with food waste other than reducing the amount of it in the first place.

“Using your kitchen caddy and putting your large grey food waste caddy out for collection with your waste or recycling collection each week reduces CO2, can create electricity to power our homes and creates nutrient rich biofertilizer used by farmers to grow crops.”

Staff from the borough council, with the walking and talking food caddy, visited Greyfriars Academy to launch the week on Monday 17 and will be at Denver VC Primary School on Thursday 20 March. After attending an all school assembly they will offer parents free replacement caddies when they collect their children. The Lily team, who organise free to attend Food for Thought sessions, took free caddies and liners to their weekly session at Eternity Downham Market on Sovereign Way on Tuesday 18 March. Their session this week also focused on how you can reduce food waste at home.

Barry Brandford, Waste and Recycling Manager at the borough council, said:

“We recycle 1800 tonnes of food waste in West Norfolk but pre-covid we were recycling over 3000 tonnes each year. We need your help to make sure that food waste doesn’t end up in the refuse bin. If you’ve lost or misplaced your kitchen caddy or large grey outdoor food waste caddy please ask for a free replacement at west-norfolk.gov.uk/yourbins.”

Borough council social media channels will also support the national Food Waste Action Week message for shoppers to save money and waste less food by shopping for loose produce.

WRAP’s research has identified the potential to reduce household food waste by removing the packaging on uncut fresh fruit and veg, enabling us to buy closer to our needs as well as the ‘bonus’ benefit of eliminating a significant amount of unnecessary packaging.

Jackie Bailey, Senior Campaign Manager Love Food Hate Waste, said:

“We know buying loose fruit and veg has the potential to significantly cut the amount of food ending up in the bin – now is the time for retailers and shoppers to make that a reality. Increasing loose fruit and veg offerings in store will not only reduce hard to recycle plastics, it will also enable shoppers to buy closer to their needs, slashing waste and stopping tens of thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions.”

Other advice the borough council will share on social media channels across the week include…

Residents can line their kitchen food waste caddies with old plastic carrier bags, bread bags, fruit and veg bags and other freezer/sandwich bags, or use these to put food waste in. This will keep their caddy and outside bin clean and hygienic - and also provide an additional use for single-use plastic bags. Alternatively, caddies can be lined with newspaper.

To mark Food Waste Action Week we visited the King's Lynn depot to find out what happens to food waste and why it's important to use your food waste caddy.