Information on Loughborough

Throw Away Society under Pressure

Posted on 09/07/2008

rubbish in a waste container

A government study found the UK wastes 4m tonnes of food every year, adding £420 to a familys shopping bills. Rising prices and the world economy are due to dominate the annual G8 summit.

 

The Cabinet Office report, due to be published later today, claims that up to 40% of food harvested in developing countries can be lost before it is consumed, due to the inadequacies of processing, storage and transport.

 

Andy Reed MP said:

"We live in a throw away culture whether its food or consumer goods."

 

"Relative low prices for food and consumer products over the last generation have made us unbelievably complacent about the things we throw away. This is both wasteful but has also helped us do more damage to our planet in the last 20 years than we could have imagined."

 

"I welcome this report as it shows we can all make efforts ourselves to make a difference. When people say they cant do anything to help themselves and blame others all the time - here is more evidence that we can make changes.

"What sickens me most about our throw away culture is having visited the poorest in the world who do not even know if they will have enough food for their next meal, we still cant be bothered and too often resent aid and trade deals."

 

"Perhaps the price hikes in oil and food are bad news for us in the short term but perhaps in the longterm they will help us readjust our lives to take on board the real cost of food production and the reducing oil fields and our reliance on oil overall. Perhaps we will finally understand we cannot continue to consume at our current rates in the rich west. If the whole world consumed as much as the average Britain we would need 6 planet Earths.”