Scotland outlines food waste reduction target
Zero Waste Scotland has published the baseline data for the country’s food waste reduction target up to 2025 – with a likely goal of 445,000 tonnes to be met.
This is based on an 1.35 million tonnes of food and drink waste produced in Scotland in 2013, according to the data released in a recent report.
Cabinet Secretary for Environment Roseanna Cunningham meeting with Marissa Lippiatt, Head of Resource Efficiency at Zero Waste Scotland and Edward Murray, Chef and Co-Owner of Gardner’s Cottage – a sustainable restaurant in Edinburgh.
The figure, which covers all quantifiable food and drink waste in Scotland, is to be used as the baseline for the Scottish Government’s target to reduce food waste by 33% by 2025.
Out of the projected 1.35 million tonnes, households accounted for 44%, producing 600,000 tonnes of food waste in 2013, followed by food and drink manufacturing, which produced 510,000 tonnes (38%).
In total, commercial and industrial solid food waste (including food and drink manufacturing) accounted for 55% of all food waste – 740,000 tonnes. Zero Waste Scotland said this figure “highlights the need to work with business to reduce food waste from farm to fork.”
In total, food and drink production accounts for around 20% of Scotland’s carbon footprint when taking into account everything that is consumed, not just emissions that occur within Scotland, Zero Waste Scotland has said.
However, the organisation also published an update on existing work to reduce household food waste, which suggests that there has been a reduction (5.7%) in household food waste between 2009 and 2014, resulting in savings to household budgets of £92 million.
