Tips to reduce food waste
- Thursday, April 10, 2025
- Posted By The Growth Company
Wednesday 30th April is Stop Food Waste Day, an annual global awareness day dedicated to reducing food waste.
In the UK alone, 9.5 million tonnes of food is wasted in a single year and globally more than a third of all food produced goes to waste. When disposed of in general waste, food goes to landfill where it rots and releases methane – a powerful greenhouse gas that is responsible for around 30% of the rise in global temperatures.
Luckily, a lot of food waste can be avoided by simple habit changes. Here are some small changes that you could make to have a big impact on reducing food waste.
One of the most effective ways to reduce food waste is to plan your meals for the week and then only buy the ingredients you need for these meals. It could also be helpful to split your shopping into smaller shops, for example picking up fresh items when you need them, so you don’t have to worry about them going off before you’ve had a chance to use them.
Take inventory of what you already have in your cupboards and fridge and make a shopping list based on what you need. It’s a good idea to adopt a stock rotation process for the food you buy, storing new things at the back behind the older items so you’re encouraged to use them first.
Instead of throwing away leftovers, you could get creative by transforming them into new dishes or incorporating them into soups, salads, or sandwiches.
Freezing is a great way to make food last longer and avoid spoilage, and you can freeze just about anything. Be sure to freeze food before its use-by date and use airtight bags or freezer-proof containers to avoid freezer burn. Here are some tips for freezing food safely.
If you have more food than you’ll be able to eat, you could consider donating it to a local foodbank. For perishable items that need to be used up soon, the app Olio could be a good solution. The free app allows you to pass on items you no longer need, including food, to people in your local area who can make use of them.
Some food waste is unavoidable, such as vegetable peels, but it doesn’t have to go in the general waste bin. you could compost your food scraps instead. Here is a helpful guide for getting started with composting.
We've recently introduced 10L brown food waste caddies across all our sites and offices in line with new waste legislation. Find out more about food waste in the office.