There is no doubt that waste is a huge problem in the UK, with Theresa May recently pledging to eliminate plastic by 2042. Supermarkets such as Iceland are already implementing appropriate changes to get rid of plastic from their branded products by 2023, after 80% of their customers said they’d support the change.
The Food Standards Agency has revealed that the UK throws away 7 million tonnes of food and drink in the household every year, and it’s costing an astonishing £12,5 billion. But what are supermarkets doing to tackle the waste problem? Teaming up with experts in Skip Hire, Reconomy, we take a look at some of the main companies making changes.
Co-op Food
With over 2,500 stores across the UK, which makes it the 5th biggest food retailer in the UK – Co-op food is taking a stand on the food waste issue here in the UK. One of the greatest achievements made by this supermarket was that in September 2015, it sent 50 tonnes of food to FareShare (the company that provides the FoodCloud app) which was 10x more than what it gave in September 2014. This enabled charitable organisations to provide those in need with over 120,000 meals — allowing Co-Op Food to stick to its ‘no waste in landfills’ rule.
Co-op has announced that it will sell food up to a month past its best-before date with hopes of reducing the amount of waste being produced. These out-of-date products will be sold for just 10p, and will include tinned goods, pastas and food sealed in packets. However, this does not include items that have a ‘use by’ date to withhold safety measures — especially with meat and dairy products.
The food retailer has said that by implementing this new scheme, it will be able to save over 50,000 items each year that would have otherwise gone to waste – helping to tackle a huge environmental problem.
Tesco
One of the biggest supermarkets in Britain has taken steps to help battle the waste problem our country faces. With 6,553 stores and serving 50 million shoppers each week, less than 1% of food is wasted, which removes 46,000 tonnes of waste from circulation.
At the end of each day, any excess food that can no longer be sold in Tesco becomes available for a charity to collect free of charge on the FoodCloud App, which is currently being trialled at stores in Asia. Through this initiative, Tesco has helped provide six million meals to over 3,500 different charities. This app, along with a few other methods, has contributed to the supermarket becoming more waste-friendly; no food from Tesco has entered a landfill since 2009.
Any baked food that goes unused is transformed into animal feed for livestock. Oils that are left over are converted into bio-diesels and when there are no alternatives, energy is generated by anaerobic digestion and incineration.
In addition, the supermarket has created a discounted ‘Perfectly Imperfect’ range for produce which doesn’t look 100% perfect – after all, it still tastes the same.
Tesco has used these methods in the UK and across its European stores (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia). 400 of them donate food to foodbanks within the local area and have currently donated 14.5 million meals since 2013. By 2020, Tesco aims to donate from all of its stores within Europe.
In order to tackle food waste further, Tesco has announced an agreement with 24 of its largest suppliers to create the Sustainable Development Goal to reduce its food waste by 50% by 2030.
