Love Food Hate Waste campaign

Good food is something to love and relish, and we can do more to cut how much we waste.

How much do we waste in the UK? The figures might surprise you. Research done by WRAP (the Waste Resources Action Programme) show that around a third of all the food we buy in the UK ends up being thrown away.

An average household spends £400 on food per year that wasn’t eaten. Whilst some of this waste isn’t edible (e.g. meat bones) there is plenty of good food that could have been eaten – if only we had used it before it went off.

Does wasted food impact badly on the environment?

Yes. In the UK we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year. Much of this ends up in landfill sites. This contributes to climate change in two ways:

The rotting process of organics releases methane and CO2 into the air. These are understood to be big causes of climate change across the globe. UK landfill sites create around 3% of all the emissions of these gases.
Producing, transporting and storing food uses a lot of energy, water and packaging. Each part of the process creates harmful climate change gases, for example lorries transporting goods from farms to supermarkets.

It’s bad enough that we harm the environment to get food on our tables. It's worse that we then waste the food itself.

How can we enjoy the food we buy, and cut how much we waste?

All 14 Kent councils have joined forces with Wrap on a great new campaign called “Love Food Hate Waste”. You’ll see coverage in newspapers and magazines. In Kent, we’re the only county in the country where you’ll also see it on billboards, buses, bus stops and in schools.

Visit the Love Food Hate Waste campaign website to find out more about the campaign

Why are the Kent councils supporting the campaign?

We want to do more to protect the fragile environment that we all love and cherish. Climate change is one of the biggest issues of the age. Anything that makes climate change worse must be tackled.

Our statement of support

‘All the councils in Kent and Medway are proud to be among the first to support the Love Food Hate Waste campaign. Kent is known worldwide as the “Garden of England”. Our high quality fruit and vegetables are enjoyed and savoured across the county. It is always sad when such tasty and wonderful food goes to waste. Cutting food waste also helps to protect the environment. We wholeheartedly encourage everyone to “Love Food Hate Waste”.

Councils signed up to the campaign include: