Did you know that during lockdown the UK reduced its food waste by a third?

This is great news, but it’s important we try and go further as we return to a ‘new normal’.

Over the lockdown period, The Climate Venture Collective (CVC), has been running a social media campaign called Lockdown Leftovers. We challenged people to think more carefully about their food waste and ways they could reduce this. We posted information, tips and recipes to get the nation thinking more consciously about how to reduce food waste — saving the planet and saving money!

We had an overwhelmingly positive response to the campaign and saw people taking a real effort to reduce their food waste. It’s crucial that we don’t stop now. With life slowly returning to ‘normal’, people starting to eat out again, and increased availability of products in shops, it’s important that we don’t undo the good work achieved so far.

Food waste and food security are not only important social issues, but also environmental. Rotting food in landfills is a huge contributor to global warming, with UK households generating the equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions from 7 million cars in food waste each year. If we all made a few small changes, we could drastically reduce food waste and the associated repercussions on our planet.

• If food waste emissions were a country, they would be the third largest emitter, behind only the USA and China. World Resources Institute.

Making small adjustments over time will have a positive impact on the environment and can save you money. The average UK household throws away the equivalent of £60 every month in the form of food waste. To help you make a difference, Lockdown Leftovers has created a handy guide using the research carried out during our campaign. Follow our top tips to help you save food and money!

Here’s a sneak-peak at some of the tips you’ll find in the guide:

• Freeze leftover curry paste/ pasta sauce and save it for another day — your future-self will thank you when you’re looking for a meal in a hurry!
• Never throw a banana away again: try making banana bread, three-ingredient pancakes or delicious smoothies.

With 70% of food thrown away being food we could have eaten, there’s a lot we can all do to help reduce food waste.

How can I help?

To continue the fight against food waste, download our handy guide here. You can also check out the CVC website for more details on what we do and how you can get involved in future campaigns and projects.

*Statistics taken from Love Food Hate Waste UK.