A total of 82% of people in Ireland are concerned about food waste in their household yet 94% are still throwing out food, according to new research from SuperValu.
Of those people concerned about food waste in their household, 80% would like to reduce their food waste. Fruit is the most common food item thrown out by Irish households.
Bananas, apples and strawberries are the fruit thrown out the most. Lettuce, carrots and potatoes are the top three vegetables most likely to be binned, SuperValu said.
Spoilage, expiration and overbuying are the three most common reasons for food waste in Irish households, the research, commissioned as part of SuperValu’s ‘Take Local Action, Make Global Impact’ campaign, found.
Food waste
Ireland generated a total of 753,000t of food waste in 2021, of which households accounted for 29%, according to latest figures by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
On an annual basis, each person throws out 44kg of food which costs the average Irish household about €700 every year. Nationally, that’s a cost of €1.29 billion, the EPA said.
While 89% of people are making a conscious effort to reduce their food waste, only 32% of the 1,200 surveyed adults regularly use leftovers, the research found.
A weekly meal plan is prepared by 44% of people and 36% said they portion correctly. Survey results also show that 10% of people never use leftovers when cooking.
Shopping better, freezing food and using leftovers are the most popular ways by which people are reducing food waste. Further survey results are as follows:
- 18% of people don’t know how to recycle food packaging properly;
- Mixed packaging materials and contamination are the main barriers to people recycling properly;
- 10% of people never read food labels before recycling;
- 32% of people do not compost;
- 64% of people are concerned about the amount of food packaging when food shopping;
- 62% of people consciously try to purchase goods with less packaging;
- 28% of people are currently growing their own fruit and veg.
When people are unsure of how to recycle an item 74% dispose of it in the general waste disposal bin, while only one in five people always read the recycling labels on the packaging, the research found.
Campaign
The ‘Take Local Action, Make Global Impact’ campaign aims to showcase how collectively, small lifestyle changes can lead to bigger global impacts.
Speaking about the initiative, head of sustainability at SuperValu, Owen Keogh, said that research shows that people want to make changes but sometimes don’t know where to start.
“Across all our digital channels and in-store, we will be encouraging and highlighting ways people can take small local actions that can contribute to a global impact,” he said.
“From recipes to help reduce food waste with recycling tips and highlighting in-store the extensive plant-based options and range of locally sourced Irish products,” he said.
SuperValu estimates that if the average household reduces its food waste by 50%, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission per person could be reduced by 37.4kg.
Improving Ireland’s recycling rate by 10% could yield a 13kg GHG emissions reduction per household, according to SuperValu which aims to cut food waste in their operations by 50% by 2030.