Britain (UK) Throws Away $20 Billions of Food

A new report from Britain has found that more than $20 billion of consumable food and drink is throw away in the country each year.

The study by the Waste and Resources Action Program, or WRAP — a group created by the British government to investigate waste and packaging — found Britain’s food waste amounts to an estimated 6.6 million tons per year.

“We throw away a staggering $20 billion of food and drink that could have been consumed, either because we cook or prepare too much, or because we let it go off,” said Dr. Richard Swannell, the director of retail and organics for WRAP, in an e-mail message.

“Research in both Australia and the U.S.A. shows that significant amounts of food are also wasted by households,” Dr. Swannell added.

The WRAP report is the first of its kind in Britain to include liquid waste. The report found that British consumers throw away abouit $460 million of milk, $417 million of soft drinks and $180 million of tea every year.

“If we stopped wasting food that could have been eaten, we could prevent at least 15 million tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions each year,” the report concluded. “The majority of these emissions are associated with embedded energy, but a significant proportion arises as a result of food waste going to landfill sites.”

Once placed in a landfill, the organic breakdown of food, along with other wastes, produces methane, a substantially more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Britain’s Food Climate Research Network estimates that 20 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food production, distribution and storage.

Britain’s 2009 budget indicates that landfill taxes are set to increase. The budget estimates landfill tax revenues in excess of $1.6 billion over the next several years.

WRAP said it aims to reduce consumer food waste by 250,000 tons by March 2011, which the group says would save 1.1 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions.