Food Waste

June 6 was the date of the World Environmental Day (WED) of 2013. The main focuses of this day for 2013 were the various problems in relation with food waste. Food waste is almost inevitable unless you can eat all the peelings of every fruit you eat, including those with poison. However, if this is so, why do various organizations such as UNEP and environmental NGOs make campaigns to reduce the food waste made? This is because we are making unnecessary food waste. We are making more than the minimum.

For example, in 2007, in the United Kingdom alone, 6,700,000tonnes of food waste has been made. This infers that each household produces 3.2kilograms of food waste per week. If we make a few assumptions that half of the 3.2 kilograms are inevitable food waste such as the sprouts of potatoes of the seeds of an apple, we still have 1.6 kg to save. In one year, we can save 3,350,000 tonnes of food waste.

In the example above, saving that amount of food waste can bring quite a few advantages to a country. First of all, economically, saving 137,000 tonnes (in ?Love Food, Hate Waste? campaign launched in the United Kingdom) saves 300 million pounds. If we save 3,350,000 tonnes?I?ll leave the math to you. It also implies that we can use that amount of money in other places and circulate the currency. If money is circulated in an economy, it will be economically stronger.

It will also be better socially. It might be an obvious thing but the staunch from food waste might be fatal to infants or weak people. Near our apartment, there were children who couldn?t stand the smell of it and ended up deciding to move away. Thanks (?) to them, our neighborhood made a more organized and ?smell-blocking? recycling bin for food waste.