Three BIG reasons we hate food waste …
~ “If food waste were a country, it would have the third-biggest carbon footprint, after the USA and China.” WRAP, 2021.
~ Each UK household wastes the equivalent of eight meals a week on average.” WRAP, 2021.
~ “If every UK household stopped wasting food for one day, it could do the same for greenhouse gas emissions as planting 640,000 trees per day (around 230 million per year).” WRAP, 2021.
Five good things we’re doing to help …
~ We sell our products by weight, which means our community can buy as much or as little as they need. No more buying a big bag of something for one recipe and leaving it forgotten at the back of the cupboard …
~ We’re believers that best before dates should be taken with a pinch of salt, although these dates are always displayed clearly on all of our dispensers in store. Best before dates are a guide based on quality, not safety. We take great care in storing all of our produce so that the quality stays tip top for as long as possible …
~ We’ve got a snazzy system in place for the rare occasions when products get close to, or past, their best before dates. With a month to go, we implement our #ZeroWaste scheme, and send things off to good homes at 50% off. Once they reach their best before date, we offer products to FoodCycle who cook up tasty, nutritious meals with donated food for anyone who needs it. And anything they can’t use gets popped in a magic bag and listed on the fantastic TooGoodToGo app, which is like a dating app for food waste haters and surplus food …
~ We, alongside KinderKitchen we are developing a journal full up with super tasty recipes to inspire you to get cooking, and we host them all on our blog as a resource for you when you’re meal planning. Most are flexible so you can swap things in and out to use up things you might already have in your pantry …
~ We champion fellow small businesses pioneering the use of surplus, unwanted ingredients in their products. RubiesInTheRubble make GOOD mayo from chickpea water from hummus manufacturing and ketchup from wonky pears. UrbanCordial make delicious fruit cordials from surplus British fruits. And UpCircleBeauty make the most amazing skincare from discarded fruit stones and spent coffee grounds. We love them all !