It’s all too easy, when we’re planning next week’s meals, to go through the fridge, discarding anything that seems to be a bit past its best. Half a lettuce here, a bag of carrots there – before you know it, your bin bag is bulging, and you’re ready to start again with a new trip to the supermarket.
But if you take some time to stop and consider the numbers, you might just think twice. Globally, one third of the food that is produced for human consumption is wasted every year – that’s 1.3 billion tons (United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation). On an international scale, that’s quite a staggering figure, especially when you think about the global hunger levels. And on a domestic scale, imagine taking a third of everything you buy in a year, and piling it up in the corner of your kitchen. That’s what the average person is wasting; but it doesn’t have to be that way!