The Black Mirror of Waste
WWS logo by Natalia Blewąska
The Global food system is responsible for 34% of total Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Food production occupies half of the world’s habitable land, uses 70% of the fresh water we consume, causes three quarters of water pollution, and is the single biggest contributor to biodiversity loss.
Currently 56% of waste being thrown away by the hospitality industry consists of things that could have been recycled. Meaning training is required to decrease the amount of recyclables like plastics, being wrongly thrown into the general waste.
In the UK alone, 4.5 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away each year by UK households. Unfortunately, 25% of this wasted food is due to cooking, preparing or serving too much. This costs UK households £3.5 billion each year (WRAP 2023).
It is truly is sobering that globally, for every two tonnes of food eaten, another another one is wasted, it’s two steps forwards one step back. Therefore, action on food waste is a top priority for WWS.
At WWS, we are in the early stages of designing a training programme to help support a new system. We are excited to go on this journey and to be part of building a better, cleaner and more efficient industry. By providing training for staff with information on what can and can’t be recycled in their vicinity. These tools can be used to recycle food and other materials efficiently during the middle of service.
It is our belief that the industry needs to introduce a system of certification and education similar to that of food hygiene and safety training, why can’t Cornwall be the first county to introduce it?
One of our intentions to help reduce food waste and subsequently, the use of nitrogen fertilisers in agriculture, which leads to the contamination of our rivers and waterways, by sending a higher proportion of food waste to anaerobic digestors in the UK.
In an ideal world, waste is a concept that shouldn’t exist. Waste management needs to start being viewed as Resource Management, our society should be able to use up and reuse what we use, to live in balance with the environment. Given the current exponential growth of humanity and the ever-increasing pressure on our planet and its finite resources, it is essential that we learn how live differently and reduce the burden of waste that we create. We need to hold up the mirror and change our actions and perceptions on waste.
Throw away, there is “no away”. There is only somewhere else, or something else.
The way we waste clearly has significant economic, social and environmental impacts. This presents an opportunity that we can all play a role in, by learning to treat waste as what it is, a resource.
