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News & Media > Environmental Services

11:01:2010

Britons threw away £60m of food at Christmas

May Gurney estimates that nearly £60m of food ended up in the bin this Christmas as families admit they buy more food than they consume.

British families spend an estimated additional £1.4bn on food and drink over the Christmas period, meaning householders spent an average of £57.78 more on food than their standard weekly shop.

A fifth of Britons admit they buy too much Christmas food and drink and a third of families saying they expect to bin more than 10% of what they buy. An additional 25% say they throw food away because they won't eat it before the 'best before' date.

The Government's waste quango, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) says this means 230 tonnes of food could end up in the bin.

A spokesman for WRAP said: "People don't realise how much food they can freeze. Cream, cheese, turkey and Christmas cake can all be frozen to eat later which will help reduce wastage and save money."

Stephen Sears, director of policy and strategy at May Gurney Environmental Services, said unless something is done about the wastage by 2013 it could mean substantial fines for local authorities if they fail to meet EU targets for cutting landfill waste.

He said: "It is critical, at a time when budgets are under extreme pressure, that local authorities develop easy to use recycling services to collect a wider range of materials and in so doing boost revenues from the waste stream and reduce landfill waste.”

Click here to read the full Telegraph news report.