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RCT Council is Supporting Food Waste Action Week

This Food Waste Action Week (6th -12th March) Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is asking residents to “WIN DON’T BIN” and look at how valuable food is in our lives, how it unites us, and how using up everything we buy saves money, time and the planet.

Lost or wasted food accounts for a staggering 8–10% of total man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The UK’s third Food Waste Action Week will run from Monday 6 to Sunday 12 March 2023, and will bring together citizens and organisations from retail, manufacturing, local government, hospitality and across industry to demonstrate the impact of wasted food on people, on business, and on the planet.

The Council is asking residents to THINK about their food waste and only buy what they need when ordering or buying their weekly food shops - by thinking ahead they can reduce the food that they waste and ensure that they have the tools they need to recycle any unavoidable waste. Some food items are inedible e.g. peelings, egg shells, meat carcasses etc. These items can be recycled as part of the Council’s weekly kerbside food waste scheme.

The majority of RCT residents say they are now recycling their leftovers and on average over 11,000 tonnes of food waste is collected and recycled in RCT - which when converted into energy at the food waste recycling plant in Bryn Pica, Llwydcoed, generates enough energy to power over 1000 homes.

If you’re not already signed up, you can find more information at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/foodwaste.

Thanks to the Council’s food waste recycling scheme and the separate food waste bins, it’s clear to see just how much food we throw away every day.

By keeping check on the amount of food we waste, you can think about portion sizes and the weekly shopping list and cut down on the food you buy and waste and save money.

UK households waste 6.5 million tonnes of food every year. We’re not talking eggshells or chicken bones. We mean leftovers from your Sunday Lunch that you threw away, or your bread crusts – all stuff which could have been transformed into something delicious.

  • We throw away 1.6 million untouched bananas every day.
  • 1.3 million un-opened yoghurts each day.
  • 600,000 whole uncooked eggs every day.
  • 1.2 million un-touched sausages.
  • 20 million slices of bread every day.

That’s a lot of sausage and egg sandwiches!

A recent WRAP kerbside black bag analysis of Rhondda Cynon Taf highlighted that our black bag waste contained 39% of food waste items that could have been recycled! This is well above the all Wales figure of 25%. By taking this food waste out of the black bag and putting it in to the weekly food waste recycling, we can help to hit the 70% recycling target set by the Welsh Government for 2024/25.

Councillor Ann Crimmings, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council's Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure said:

“The latest figures show that more residents than ever before are joining the food waste recycling scheme! We are delighted that so many people are seeing just how easy it is to recycle your food waste. However, there are still some people who don’t recycle their food waste.

“We are committed to doing all we can to recycle as much as we possibly can and will continue to invest for the future to ensure we have high-quality vehicles and easy-to-use facilities that people rely upon to recycle.

“We have a dedicated food waste recycling plant right here in our County Borough, based in Bryn Pica, Llwydcoed, which sees more food waste than ever before being converted into enough energy to power homes. “We want to succeed in partnership with our communities and ‘Up Our Recycling GAME’, which is why we provide an effective weekly kerbside recycling and food waste collection scheme that is free of charge to use, as well as community facilities and ongoing education and awareness raising on the subject.”

For more information about the Council’s Food Waste recycling scheme and to order a food waste caddy visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/foodwaste.

For more tips and advice visit https://lovefoodhatewaste.com

Posted on 09/03/2023