London’s food businesses have rejected help from the Mayor of London to reduce food waste and save money.
A huge 94% of food businesses have turned down the offer of support. Many of them claim that they do not waste food – an astonishing claim which most of us could not make – and even if they do waste they do not want to do anything about it. This is even more astonishing when the few participating businesses calculate they have each saved an average £6000 annually through the programme.
The tiny number of 90 businesses which have so far participated in the scheme are expected in total to save more than £300,000 per year, cut their food and related packaging waste by 259 tonnes and to divert 880 tonnes of surplus food to good causes. Some expect to save as much as £20,000 each year.
Traders at London’s iconic Borough Market, for example, are now donating up to a tonne of surplus food each month to local charities.
The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) and Sustain togeth deliver the Mayor’s FoodSave programme across the UK’s capital.
A fuller account of the scheme and its failure to get our food businesses to cut their waste is at: London’s food businesses ‘unaware or unwilling to tackle waste’.
