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New campaign aims to tide food waste at home

About 2.2 million tonnes of edible food is discarded in Canada every year
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Canadians are among the worst when it comes to food waste, but a number of B.C. cities and a group of food retailers are trying to change that.

B.C. communities, Walmart and Sobeys launched a Love Food Hate Waste campaign Wednesday, aimed at changing people’s behavior around food and reducing how much food is tossed each day.

Led by the National Zero Waste Council – founded by Metro Vancouver in 2013 – other groups participating include Toronto and RECYC-QUÉBEC.

According to the council, more than 60 per cent of the food Canadians throw away could have been eaten, costing the average household more than $1,100 per year. About 2.2 million tonnes of edible food is discarded each year.

“The campaign is the first coordinated national approach to help Canadians change their relationship with food,” said Malcolm Brodie, chair of the National Zero Waste Council, in a news release.

“It only takes a small change, such as buying only what we need so food doesn’t spoil or get forgotten in the back of the fridge and is then thrown out.”

The campaign offers practical and easy tips for keeping and storing fresh food, using up existing ingredients and better planning to avoid over-purchasing.

It’s based on a model in the United Kingdom, where avoidable household food waste was cut by 21 per cent in its first five years.


@ashwadhwani
ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca

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About the Author: Ashley Wadhwani-Smith

I began my journalistic journey at Black Press Media as a community reporter in my hometown of Maple Ridge, B.C.
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