FareShare North East for Food Waste Action

We can’t tackle climate change without fixing food waste first!

Elle, our Impact and Evaluation Co-ordinator, went to COP26 in Glasgow this month. She came across this piece of artwork titled ‘The Food Waste Effect’ by Itamar Gilboa and it got her thinking about the detrimental impacts of food waste on our planet. This blog post delves into the problem of food waste and what FareShare North East is doing to prevent it.

Making a Difference Together

Did you know that two million tonnes of fresh, unsold food is wasted in the UK every single year? The average UK family generates a 117kg pile of food waste every six months and if we ranked food waste next to nation states, it would come in as the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses…accounting for 10% of the world total. An estimated 2 million tonnes of food wasted on UK farms and in factories every year is still perfectly good to eat when it is disposed of. We don’t need to wait for world leaders to take action against food waste, we can make a difference together. 

Redistributing Surplus Food is Important

Redistributing surplus food is the most environmentally, socially, and economically friendly thing we can do. According to FareShare UK, every tonne of food we redistribute, we prevent the waste of 1.6 tonnes of embedded CO2 emissions and save 1.5 million litres of embedded water from being wasted. By redistributing good to eat surplus food to charities and community groups it allows us to avoid both needless waste and needless hunger. We can help edible food out of landfills and help reduce the pressure to grow more food whilst supporting people struggling with food poverty. That’s a win-win for people and the environment!