Building successful business partnerships to reduce Food and Drink Waste

Andy Dawe

Head of Food & Drink Programme, WRAP 26 th June 2012

Content

    Why tackle food waste?

Consumer strategy Business strategy Conclusions

UK food waste arisings

  Households account for ca. 50% of total UK food waste 60% (4.4Mt) is avoidable * This covers part of the profit sector, and schools; ** incl. other parts of the hospitality and food service sector, other out of home food waste, and pre-factory gate food waste; household figures updated October 2011. NB data for household also includes drink waste, which is not currently available for other sectors

Impact of UK Waste

  Household food waste - 20 Mt CO 2 eq/y Food and drink supply chain – 10 Mt CO 2 eq/y  £12 bn for households  £5 bn for businesses  Food waste: 4,500 billion litres water/y

Strategy

• • • • Raise awareness of food waste Prioritise household food waste reductions Drive change in the supply chain Tackle hospitality and catering waste

Consumer food waste prevention

Consumer food waste prevention strategy

Changing consumer behaviour:

– Raising awareness & engaging consumers to act – “Love Food Hate Waste” – Partners

Making it easier for consumers to waste less:

– Influencing those selling food to change /improve products and practices to help consumers waste less

Objective To change the retail environment to help consumers: Buy the right amount Keep what is bought at its best - Pack size range and availability - Promotions - Planning / ordering tools - Packaging functionality, re-close - Clear storage guidance - In-home tools Use what is bought - Consistent, simple use of dates - Maximum shelf life - Portioning tools 8

Impact

 In 2009 1.1Mt/y less food waste was collected than in 2006/7    Reduction of 13% Value of avoided food waste was ~ £2.5billion /y Lower food sales

Trends in food-waste reducing behaviours (% reporting all of the time or most of the time) and those understanding best-before dates (note that y-axis does not start at zero)

Business food waste prevention

Courtauld Commitment Phase 2 Signatories

Courtauld Commitment 2 - targets

3 targets, 3 years (2010-2012):

Packaging Target

To reduce carbon impact of packaging by 10%

Household Food & Drink Waste Target

To reduce household food and drink wastes by 4%

Supply Chain Product Waste Target

To reduce traditional grocery product waste in the grocery supply chain by 5%

Supply chain strategy

• Evidence – resource maps • Engagement – Key Account Managers • Guidance – Sector guidance notes • Support – Waste prevention reviews

Hospitality and Food Service Agreement

Composition of mixed waste from HaFS sector

Plastic film 5% Dense Plastic 5% Cardboard 9% Other 13% Food 41% For organisations: “… to work towards zero waste through actively encouraging staff, customers and suppliers to prevent waste arising and reuse and recycle more“ Glass 14% Paper 13%

Conclusions

     Reducing food waste is a priority Household food waste is single biggest source in UK Changing consumer behaviour & changing retail environment to help seems to work Some good progress, much more to do.

Supply chain & hospitality waste now being tackled

Thank you