Tag Archives: waste

Christmas, The Most Wasteful Time Of The Year?

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christmas_family460Christmas is a time of joy but also a time of giving. Unfortunately, it is also a time of waste and this Christmas is set to be a wasteful one, as new research today reveals Brits will throw out 4.2 million Christmas dinners across the country, amounting to the equivalent of 17.2m Brussels sprouts, 263,000 turkeys and 740,000 Christmas puddings.

 

The poll of 2,000 adults by Unilever shows that while we spend hundreds of pounds catering for the big day – on average £112 is spent per host on food alone – nearly 10% of every dinner plate is thrown away once the Christmas festivities subside, equalling a whopping £64m of squandered food.

 

Typically, there are six of us around the Christmas dinner table and we’re expected to eat £18.60 worth of food each. It would take the average family nearly 4 days to eat all of their food bought just for Christmas Day.

 

As part of Project Sunlight #ClearAPlate campaign, aimed at showing that ‘food poverty’ and ‘food waste’ are issues closer to home than many of us think, the research exposes the excesses of the festive season, with 75% of people admitting to overspending on their Christmas Day shop, and having too much leftover food. We all know that Christmas is a time for giving and, through the campaign this year, Project Sunlight are asking people to give just a moment to plan their festive food and think about what goes into the trolley. We’re also asking that if you do buy too much, don’t forget to drop some tins into your local food bank to help those that need it.

 

20% of Brits admit to buying traditional Christmas food they don’t necessarily like to eat, resulting in the nation discarding literally millions of roast vegetables. The amount of neglected Brussels sprouts alone would fill 1,000 wheelie bins, and all the leftover carrots could reach from London to Munich, end-to-end. Astonishingly, Brits could even fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool with all of the wasted Christmas gravy!

 

Top 10 most thrown-away Christmas foods:

We throw away:

  1. 17.2m Brussels sprouts
  2. 11.9m carrots
  3. 11.3m roast potatoes
  4. 10.9m parsnips
  5. 9.8m cups of gravy
  6. 7.9m slices of turkey (approx. 263,000 turkeys)
  7. 7.9m cups of stuffing
  8. 7.5m mince pies
  9. 7.4m slices of Christmas pudding (approx. 740,000 Christmas puddings)
  10. 7.1m pigs in blankets

When it comes to the festive season it seems our eyes are bigger than our bellies, with one third of respondents admitting to serving themselves an excessive Christmas dinner that they can’t finish. Additionally, 36% of adults cite ‘getting caught up in the Christmas spirit’ as their excuse for buying too much food for the day.

 

Under 35s are the worst culprits for food wastage at Christmas, as they lash out spending more than the national average (15% spending up to £200), but confess to discarding 13% of their Christmas food shop.

 

Top 5 Christmas Leftover Recipes:

  1. Best Ever Turkey Sandwich
  2. Spiced Persian Turkey Soup
  3. Marzipan Panettone Pudding
  4. Bubble & Squeak
  5. Turkey Meatloaf

 

The #ClearAPlate campaign pledges to provide an additional half a million meals to families in need through its partnership with Oxfam and calls on people to do their bit to address food waste, in order to help fight hunger.

 

People can show their support for the #ClearAPlate campaign through three simple steps:

  • CLEAR their plate of food and take a photograph
  • UPLOAD the image on their social media using #ClearAPlate to raise awareness of the issue
  • VISIT www.ProjectSunlight.co.uk to find out other ways to support the campaign, including donating meals or time to Oxfam. People can also find tips and advice on reducing food waste and clever recipe ideas

 

 

 

Ecover Launch Bottle Made From Ocean Plastic

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We love environmentally friendly products here at Frost and this bottle of washing up liquid, made from Ocean Plastic, certainly fits the bill. There is a huge island of plastic in the middle of the pacific ocean and something must be done about that, and the waste in the ocean in general. ecoverEcological cleaning pioneer Ecover has launched its first ever bottle made from waste plastic fished out of the ocean. The Ecover Ocean Bottle, which holds Ecover’s washing-up liquid, is made entirely from recycled plastic, with 10 per cent of that plastic coming from the sea. The washing-up liquid itself has been developed with a special ‘sea lavender and eucalyptus’ fragrance – bringing the scent of the sea to homes across the UK without compromising on performance.

Ecocover.Photo: Professional Images/@ProfImages

The company’s ultimate aim is to create the conditions for a systematic clean-up of the huge amount of waste plastic in the sea. Not only does the reduction of waste plastic in the ocean make for healthier, happier fish and sea mammals, it also has a direct impact on us humans as it would ultimately reduce the levels of microplastics in food, drink and other products, meaning we would eat more fish, and less plastic.

 

The new limited edition Ocean Bottle will be available from Tesco for £2, while stocks last.

 

• Fish in the middle depths of the Northern Pacific Ocean are ingesting as much as 24,000

tonnes of plastic each year3

• Reducing the amount of waste plastic in the sea would reduce the levels of microplastics in

food and drink

• Ecover wants to stop any more plastic from getting in to the sea, as well as creating the

conditions for a systematic clean-up of the waste that’s already there

 

Ecover will be using one tonne of ocean plastic, which it aims to increase to three tonnes next year.

 

“The scale of the ocean plastic problem is enormous – around 46,000 pieces of plastic are swirling around every square mile of ocean, and every year at least a million sea birds and 100,000 sharks, turtles, dolphins and whales die from eating plastic. There is no choice – we simply have to aim to clean up ocean plastic for good,” said Philip Malmberg, CEO of Ecover.

 

“Our ocean plastic bottle is just one small step on the way to solving the problem, but you’ve got to start somewhere – what we need now is to create a wider network of fishermen, recycling facilities and manufacturers to really make this happen. We also have to exploit existing supply chains and make it as easy as possible for manufacturers to use ocean plastic. At the moment the will is there but it’s just too much effort for many manufacturers to make it work.”

 

 

Does the packaging in your bin annoy you?

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Does the packaging in your bin annoy you?

Packaging is funny stuff. No-one goes out to buy it; they go to buy the things inside. And by the time you get it home, and remove (or use up) the contents of the pack, it has worked quite hard.

But most of what it does is invisible to consumers. We don’t see products stacked meters high in warehouses, stacked on an open dockside in the heat or shaken about in the back of a lorry. Even a humble crisp packet, which uses the tiniest amount of material, performs a number of jobs to ensure that crisps are crisp, not stale, and not crushed into tiny bits.

There has been lots of publicity recently for the huge quantity of food we waste in the UK each year. Wasting food is an environmental disaster, not least because all of the energy and other resources that went into growing, processing, storing and transporting it are also wasted, along with the food itself. But few of us probably realize that if the UK’s packaging and distribution system was not as sophisticated and technologically advanced as it is, there would be far more food waste.

Most food just would not be available without packaging – sliced bread, yogurt, frozen peas, rice, jam, cream cake. Packaging continually responds to changes in life style – smaller portions for people living alone; prepared microwavable vegetables for time-poor people and those who want to reduce cooking energy – in a way that few other industries have done.

Twenty years ago there was roughly the same amount of packaging in your bin as there is today, but it would have been generated by far fewer goods. That’s because manufacturers and retailers keep doing more with less, reducing the resources used to provide the same (or better) protection, information and hygiene.

On average just 1% of packaged food is wasted compared to 10% of food sold loose. That’s because packaged food does not get damaged in the supply chain and it lasts longer on the shelf.

The public mistakenly sees the packaging in their bin as a sign of failure, but over 80% of packaging can easily be recycled so clean paper, cardboard, glass, metals and plastic bottles should be put in recycling boxes, not rubbish bins. However, even non-recyclable packaging is – in the big picture of total resources used – helping to avoid waste. It also makes much of modern life possible – take-away coffee, ready-made sandwiches, microwaveable meals.

We should learn to love packaging – it’s helping to reduce waste and improve both choice and convenience. How many products can claim that?

MUMS-TO-BE WASTE £158 MILLION EACH YEAR ON BABY PRODUCTS THEY WILL NEVER USE

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A survey of British mothers shows that the average new mother wastes more than £200 on items such as baby DVDs, room humidifiers and changing bins.

Useless baby products to appear in the top 20 list of never-used buys include air purifiers, Video monitors, car seat covers and baby bath stands.

Interestingly, items that some children might enjoy – such as baby swings and baby walkers –aren’t rated as particularly useful by mums.

Sally J. Hall, product champion for Bounty.com, which conducted the research said: “It’s hard to know what to buy for a baby if you haven’t had one before. You can listen to advice from other mums, friends and family and swot up with books and the internet, but the fact is, each mum has a different lifestyle and income – and should choose to suit herself rather than blindly follow an off-the-shelf ‘baby list’”

“Each child is different too – if you have a placid, calm baby that sleeps through the night you might not be as concerned about checking the temperature of the room and the air purification every five minutes.”

The survey shows that the majority of mums (86%) started to stock up on baby products long before they even had the child – but 43% say they totally over-bought on what they needed. The average new mother admitted to spending nearly £700 in total on baby products and 14% of women got into trouble with their partner for over-spending on things they didn’t strictly need for the baby.

Nappies, baby clothing, wet wipes, prams and bottles all featured highly as essentials that mums should buy, while basic furniture such as cots, highchair, nursery furniture and Moses baskets are considered essential for British mums.

Sally continues; “We commissioned this research as the current economic climate has seen families having to tighten their belts. Having a baby is already an expensive business and we wanted to understand from new mums themselves which products they found really essential – and which they could have definitely done without.

“New parents generally have less disposable income, through taking maternity leave and having to get by on one salary – but to look round some of the shops, you’d think that babies couldn’t manage without endless accessories.

“When it comes down to it, all babies need are to have their basic needs met – to eat, be kept clean and warm – and to be loved – something parents should keep in mind if they’re watching their spending.”

Bounty has used the information to launch the answer to this dilemma. The Bounty Baby Product Guide will be distributed to around 96% of all first time pregnant mums at the beginning of their third month of pregnancy – just when they are making these important decisions. It shows pregnant women how to buy sensibly for their income and lifestyle and recommends products that will save them money and give them more time to spend with their new baby.

TOP 20 LEAST USEFUL BABY BUYS

1. Air purifier

2. Video monitor

3. Baby DVD

4. Room humidifier

5. Designer pram / pushchair

6. Changing bin

7. Room thermometer

8. Feeding pillow

9. Sound and movement monitor

10. Baby bath stand

11. Top and tail bowl

12. Baby shoes

13. Bath thermometer

14. Round rubber baby chair

15. Car seat cover

16. Brand name nappies

17. Bath seat

18. Baby swing

19. Baby walker

20. Soft cuddly toys

TOP 20 MOST USEFUL BABY BUYS

1. Nappies

2. Baby grows

3. Wet wipes

4. Pram or pushchair

5. Baby vest

6. Bottles

7. Cot

8. Changing mat

9. Bedding

10. Car seat

11. Steam steriliser

12. Bibs

13. Baby blankets

14. Clothing

15. Highchair

16. Baby bath

17. Nappy bags

18. Nursery furniture

19. Stair gates

20. Moses basket / crib