FOOD WASTE ACTION WEEK - BUY LOOSE!
This week is Food Waste Action Week, and by happy chance, it is also the fourth anniversary of Seaton Community Larder which is run by SAVE food hub.
Nationally Food Waste Action Week is encouraging people to buy loose fruit and vegetables thereby avoiding all the plastic packaging that damages the environment so much. By buying what people actually need rather than a bag of a random amount, it avoids much of it ending up in the bin.
It has been estimated that if all apples, bananas and potatoes were sold loose, 60,000 tonnes of food waste could be avoided! So why not buy fresh fruit and vegetables loose in future. Often local greengrocers will sell fruit and veg. So, not only saving plastic and preventing food waste but also supporting the local shops and economy.
In some ways, Seaton Community Larder seems to have been operating forever, so it’s worth celebrating the progress made since it started redistributing food twice a week from the room above Natural Worx, Seaton. In the first few months, the larder distributed over 20,000 food items to local people and provided food to local food banks and projects.
Since opening in 2021, Seaton Community Larder has prevented 87.5 tonnes of food from going to waste, equivalent to 245 tonnes of C02. Aileen Heal added “And more than that we have become a visible and valued part of the local community as we have grown. Our opening hours have increased, the number of stores working with us to save surplus food has grown, and we have developed a successful partnership with Seaton library where the community fridge means food is accessible for more hours and to more local people.”
To give that some meaning this is what 245 tonnes of CO2 is equivalent to:
Annual emissions of 53 average UK homes: The average UK household emits around 4.6 tonnes of CO2 annually (based on typical energy use, transportation, and other factors). So, 245 tonnes would be about the same as the yearly emissions of 53 homes.
Driving a car for 1.6 million miles:
The average car emits around 0.12 kg of CO2 per mile. This means 245 tonnes of CO2 would be equivalent to driving a car for approximately 1.6 million miles, which is about 64 times the distance around the earth or 6.7 times the distance to the moon.
Flying from London to New York 122 times: A round-trip flight from London to New York emits about 2 tonnes of CO2 per passenger. 245 tonnes would cover around 122 flights.
These are rough estimates, but they give a sense of the impact of 245 tonnes of CO2 in terms of common activities like household energy use, driving, and flying.