A report by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has found that household food waste in the UK has increased by almost a third as lockdown restrictions were eased.
In April during the first phase of lockdown, consumers reported a reduction in their amount of food waste as people were concerned about visiting shops and running out of food. By June as lockdown restrictions started to ease however, the levels of food waste began to increase. The levels of waste are still currently below pre-lockdown food waste levels but WRAP are concerned waste levels could rise further.
In order to address this WRAP are launching a new campaign: 'Keep Crushing It', to motivate households to keep up the positive changes they made relating to food waste during lockdown. This includes actions such as planning meals, making shopping lists and freezing more food. The campaign also seeks to highlight the environmental benefits of a reduction in food waste, in terms of CO2 equivalent saving.
Director of WRAP, Peter Maddox, commented: ''We've seen clearly how effective the Love Food Hate Waste messages and tools are – we need to reach more people to widen our impact. The more novel and innovative ways we find to engage with new audiences about this, the greater our chance of meeting the crucial target of halving wasted food by 2030.''
