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‘Parliament throws 45,000 meals in the bin while 70,000 London kids go hungry’ – Labour MP
Published time: 18 Dec, 2015 13:13
Parliament wasted 45,000 meals last year as tens of thousands of children go hungry across London, an MP has said.
New
figures that reveal the staggering amount of food waste in the British
parliament have prompted calls for MPs to donate their unused meals to
those in need.
Shadow Commons Leader Chris Bryant called on the government to give uneaten meals to local food banks in the capital.
“Last
year 1.2 million sausages were sent to landfill in Rhondda Cynon Taf
alone, which is why it is great that the local council is now signing
everybody up to proper food recycling,” the Welsh Labour MP said.
“But new figures show that this House last year wasted 45,000 meals that were just tipped in the bin.
“With
33 Trussell Trust food banks within the M25 and an estimated 70,000
children in London going to bed hungry each night, would it not be time
for the leader to institute a new scheme to donate unused food from this
palace to local London food banks?”
The top three foods being thrown away uneaten in British homes are bread, potatoes and milk. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA
The average UK family is wasting nearly £60 a month by throwing away almost an entire meal a day, according to a new report that reveals the scale of the ongoing challenge to reduce household foodwaste.
Britons
are chucking out the equivalent of 24 meals a month, adding up to 4.2
million tonnes of food and drink every year that could have been
consumed. Almost half of this is going straight from fridges or
cupboards into the bin. One-fifth of what households buy ends up as
waste, and around 60% of that could have been eaten.
There has
been no progress in reducing meat and fish wastage, with Britons still
throwing away the equivalent of 86 million chickens every year. The top
three foods being thrown away uneaten in British homes are bread,
potatoes and milk. The equivalent of 24m slices of bread, 5.8m potatoes
and 5.9m glasses of milk are being wasted daily, while even cakes and
pastries make it into the top 10 most wasted items.
The study by
the government's waste advisory body, the Waste & Resources Action
Programme (Wrap), shows that since 2007, avoidable household food waste
has been cut by 21% to 4.2m tonnes, saving consumers almost £13bn.
Wrap said that such waste should be cut a further 1.7m tonnes a year
by 2025, saving up to £45bn. Its chief executive, Dr Liz Goodwin,
called on retailers, manufacturers, governments and consumers to agree
to a "major combined effort".
The
United Nations says Europeans throw away 90 million tons of food every
year, while a significant number of people continue to go hungry in
other parts of the world.
A recent UN report revealed
that millions of households across Europe are throwing out a colossal
amount of edible food, while millions of people around the world do not
have enough food to eat, Press TV correspondent Zarya Shakely reported
on Sunday.
The bulk of this waste is attributed to consumers who buy more food than they consume, the international body said.
“Because
a lot of households do not know, they are not aware of how much food
they waste in their households. I think when an individual is aware of
the food-wasting problem, there will also be a change in other sectors
in the food supply chain,” said Felicitas Schneider with the Vienna
Waste Management Institute.
In Austria alone, 25 percent of all the food produced in the country is
wasted each year, with the average household spending approximately 300
euros worth of unused groceries - mostly consisting of leftovers like
fruit, vegetables, bread, dairy products and meat.
“I feel
bad because customers only want to buy food that is fresh, and also we
are not allowed to sell bad food and we are not able to do anything
against this. The only thing we can do is to take it with us home,” said
Dogan Kayikci, a market trader.
This is while according to the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), some 1.3 billion tons of food
are wasted globally every year.
Experts recommend that food
wastage can be reduced with better planning before shopping to get food
portions right and storing food correctly to keep it fresh longer.
Politicians are also encouraged to introduce policies that would reduce
the level of food waste.
GMA/SS
