adminYou may have noticed.. this week we’ve been all about food waste. In our efforts to learn more about food waste specifically in Vancouver we stumbled across this awesome campaign put on by Metro Vancouver to raise awareness about food waste. Love Food Hate Waste is modelled after the same program in the UK that started back in 2007.
We’re not sure about you, but up until last week we’d never heard of this campaign, so we reached out to Peter Cech of Love Food Hate Waste to ask some questions about this initiative.
Q: How long has this campaign been running for?
A: LFHW launched May 7, 2015
Q: Why did you create Love Food Hate Waste?
A: Food from all sources (retail, wholesalers, hospitality sector, households) make up almost 40% of the garbage received at Metro Vancouver transfer stations. Half of that comes from our homes.
Goal 1 of Metro Vancouver’s Solid Waste Management Plan is to reduce waste at source. That is the objective of the LFHW campaign – to reduce avoidable household food waste before it occurs.
This campaign also complements Metro Vancouver’s food scraps campaign to divert food from garbage into the green bins.
Looking at other campaigns we determined LFHW from the UK was the most effective with metrics to back that up. Rather than copy their campaign, we are working with WRAP to replicate their campaign including utilizing their creative. We deemed this approach to be the most effective use of taxpayers $$$.
Q: How much food waste ends up in our landfills?
A: Residential food and liquid (milk, soups etc.) waste is estimated to be at least 190,000 tonnes per year, of which 100,000 tonnes should have been eaten.
Q: How much money are we throwing away every year with the food we waste?
A: A typical Metro Vancouver household is throwing away about $700 worth of perfectly good food away each year.
Q: What is the most common item of food people waste?
Q: What are some ways we can start educating consumers?
A: People need to become aware that this is happening in their homes. Because the waste each time we prep or finish meals is usually pretty small they don’t think they waste good food… but it really adds up!
Q: What would be the most important tip you could give consumers?
A: Menu plan. Shop at home first to see what needs to be used up. Make a shopping list and stick to it!
For a lot of people that’s a HUGE change in behavior. That’s why Metro Vancouver’s Love Food – Hate Waste campaign is designed to help residents achieve quick wins! By doing one thing differently today, they should see less food waste immediately, and that reward will help them to continue to look for ways to waste less food, to build a greater sense of capacity in the kitchen and eventually to enjoy menu planning for no food wasted.
Q: What other useful resources can we find on your website?
A: Love Food – Hate Waste offers lots of storage tips to keep food fresher for longer, as well as user-generated tips for how to use up food that needs to be eaten now.
Q: Where do you see the campaign in 5 years? What are you goals?
A: In 2018 we will replicate our baseline research to measure and report out on the effectiveness of the campaign. Our goal is to reduce residential avoidable food waste by 10% by 2018.
Make sure to check out Love Food Hate Waste’s website for all info on food waste in Vancouver. You can also check out their parent websitebased out of the UK.
A big thanks to Peter Cech and Metro Vancouver for taking the time to talk with us =)
– TSL
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