Youngsters show how to cut down food waste
Published Tuesday 24th July 12 in Council - news and information releases news
At the end of term, children from St Mary’s Primary School, Prittlewell, won rewards and praise for tackling food waste.
A group of 30 pupils who embarked on a week-long food waste challenge were presented with special magnets and pencils in recognition of their recycling efforts.
During the recent Southend Food Waste Week they diligently kept daily food waste diaries, recording all items of wasted food.
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council's Executive Councillor for Public Protection, Waste and Transport, Councillor Tony Cox, said: "Very well done to our young recyclers for setting us such a terrific example and using their special diaries to help them highlight the issue of food waste.
"It is shocking that more than half of Britain's food waste comes from our homes, and half of this is food we could have eaten.
"Every day in this country we waste around five million potatoes, two million tomatoes and 37 million slices of bread, and throw away half of the salad we buy.
"While some food waste is unavoidable - such as vegetable peelings and bones - half of it could have been eaten. It is this 'avoidable' food waste that we want to reduce.
"If we all stopped wasting food the benefit to the planet would be equivalent to taking one in every five cars off the road. It would also save the average household £480 a year - that's £50 per month!"