Food waste – setting the UK and global scene
Around 50% of all food produced on the planet never gets eaten. In the UK, almost 15 million tonnes of food waste is generated each year. Around 40% of this ends up in landfill1 where it produces harmful methane with a global warming potential 21 times stronger than carbon dioxide. So it is vital that we act decisively today.
Launched by ReFood, Vision 2020 is a credible solution to this ever-growing problem. Its main aim is to bring about a change in Government strategy, to ban food waste from landfill and instead see it recycled. By achieving this, we'll also be helping the UK meet its obligations under current Landfill Directives.
We want to see an industry-agreed timetable for this ban, with changes introduced swiftly, yet in a manageable order. After all, the clock is ticking and time is not on our side.
Download the Vision 2020:
UK roadmap to zero food waste to landfill
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Our aims for 2020
This is what the UK looks like now, and also what it could look like in 2020 if we achieve zero food waste to landfill:
When Vision 2020 was first launched in early 2011, there was an absence of available statistics on food waste in the UK. WRAP’s 2008 report entitled ‘The Food We Waste’ estimated that 6.7m tonnes of food waste were generated by households every year, but elsewhere it was largely guesswork.
Thanks to a body of research principally funded by WRAP since then, the picture is clearer and the size of the benefits more easily determined. This is what the UK could look like in 2020 if we achieve zero food waste to landfill.
1 Defra 2011: Government Review of Waste Policy in England