Third of average Crawley rubbish bin is food waste

This kind of waste makes up nearly a third of the average rubbish bin in Crawley.

This is the equivalent of nearly 20 rubbish trucks full of food being thrown away every day - and throwing food away costs.

This is why Crawley and the rest of the West Sussex Waste Partnership is organising a campaign over the coming months to encourage residents to join their fight against food waste.

The campaign will raise awareness on food waste and provide advice on how to ‘be a smart shopper’, ‘freeze with ease’ and ‘love your leftovers’.

To kick off the campaign, MasterChef Champion 2018 Kenny Tutt will be joining the partnership between 11am and 3pm tomorrow (Thursday September 6) at Memorial Gardens, Crawley.

Kenny will be delivering a culinary masterclass focusing on how to ‘love your leftovers’ by turning food which may have ended up in the bin into delicious dishes.

Kenny said: “I am thrilled to be working with my local waste partnership on this exciting new campaign and I can’t wait to show fellow residents in Crawley how to create some quick and easy food from what potentially could have ended up in the bin. There are so many great things you can do with leftovers from vibrant curries to beautiful casseroles or soups, but often people just need a few pointers to get them started.

“I’m hoping that the event will be hugely successful and that it kick starts a whole new ethos across Crawley to stop people wasting valuable money on food that ultimately ends up in the bin.”

In Crawley 70% of food waste could have been eaten at some point prior to being thrown away.

Of that, 41% is just not used in time and 25% is binned because we cook or prepare too much.

Cabinet member for Environmental Services and Sustainability, Geraint Thomas, said: “We’re all guilty of buying and cooking too much food, but instead of wasting it, there are a lot of steps we could take to prevent so much of it going in the bin; like prepping and freezing food we aren’t going to use and shopping smarter so we only buy the things we need.

“I would encourage everyone to come along to Thursday’s event and pick up some tips and tricks on how to prevent food waste and even save some money in the long run!”

To find out more information on the events and the campaign, visit https://www.wastepreventionwestsussex.co.uk/ and click on the ‘events’ tab.

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