Recycle Food Waste in Plymouth

"As the population continues to increase and more pressure is placed on global food production, we have not just a moral obligation but an absolute need to address the issue of food waste"
- Global initiative 'Vision 2020'

First and foremost, let's look at the consequences of food waste going to landfill. According to food sharing service "Olio", in the UK the average family throws away 22% of their weekly shop, which is worth £730 per year. It takes a land mass larger than China to grow the food each year that is ultimately never eaten – land that has been deforested, species that have been driven to extinction, indigenous populations that have been moved, soil that has been degraded – all to produce food that we then just throw away. In addition, food that is never eaten accounts for 25% of all fresh water consumption globally.

Not only are all of the resources that went into creating the uneaten food wasted (land, water, labour, energy, manufacturing, packaging, etc), but when food waste goes to landfill, which is where the vast majority of it ends up, it decomposes without access to oxygen and creates methane, which is 23x more deadly than carbon dioxide.

Finally, and most frankly, Plymouth lags the rest of South Devon. It is truly embarrassing that a city as significant in size and population as Plymouth, can appear so apathetic towards the planet's environmental issues. Just look at Teignbridge, collecting food waste from cities, towns and villages. It might seem to some that it is too late or too early to make a change, but it is not too late to at least try.