The Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine, Charlie Mc Conalogue, is today (Friday, December 22) reminding consumers of the importance of preventing food waste by using up Christmas leftovers.
Ireland has committed to reducing food waste by 50% by the end of this decade, in line with the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals.
Earlier this year, the EPA launched a new food waste charter, which calls on all businesses and State agencies operating across the food supply chain to sign up and commit to reducing food waste.
The food waste charter is among 38 priority actions under Ireland’s National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap 2023-2025.
Leftovers
“Globally, more than 25% of food produced is wasted. In Ireland according to current best estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we waste about 750,000tof food each year,” Minister McConalogue said.
Households accounted for 31% of the food waste produced, followed by the manufacturing and processing sector with 29%.
“Food waste arises for several reasons, it can be that we buy or prepare too much food, our plans change, and leftovers go off in the fridge.
“At this time of year in particular, we should all consider the impact of food waste on both the environment and on our income,” McConalogue added.
According to Stop Food Waste, the national campaign to reduce household food waste, 58% of people say keeping leftovers but not using them up in time is the main reason for throwing food away.
“December 26 is designated as National Leftover Day. The Stop Food Waste website has lots of tips for using up Christmas leftovers and I would encourage everyone to take a look and reduce their food waste in 2024,” the minister said.
Brown bin
Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan this week signed new legislation which means that every household in the State will be provided with a brown bin for food waste and light garden waste by their waste collector.
The minister said that this will help householders to segregate their waste, minimise the amount of waste that goes to landfill, and reuse waste through measures such as recycling, composting or anaerobic digestion (AD).
Currently, around 69% of Irish households can avail of a food waste collection service from their waste service collector.
The brown bin service accepts all types of food including raw and cooked meat and fish, plate scrapings, along with fruit and vegetable peelings.
Other items that can go into this bin include food-soiled paper napkins, paper towels, pizza boxes as well as grass clippings and light garden waste.