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In November 2007, Waste and Resources Action
Programme1 (WRAP) launched a campaign called
"Love Food Hate
Waste" in the UK to create awareness among consumers about the
impact of food wastage on the environment. The campaign was
launched based on research by WRAP that revealed that UK
households wasted 6.7 million tones of food every year, with an
estimated cost of £8 billion per year. In addition to
highlighting the financial implications of this waste, WRAP
wanted to highlight the enormous adverse impact of this wasteful
practice on the environment.
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With this campaign, WRAP aimed to minimize food
wastage by 100,000 tones by March 2008.
According to WRAP's estimates, about one-third of the food purchased in
the UK was thrown away and found its way into landfills. WRAP contended
that these food items decayed in the landfills releasing harmful
greenhouse gases like methane.
Also, the amount of energy expended in packaging and transporting the
food to the consumers led to 15 million tones of carbon dioxide
emissions. They said that the amount of waste was growing by 3 percent
per annum, and left unchecked, the amount of waste would double between
1995 and 2020, with ominous implications for the environment.
The research also revealed that that the consumers were unaware of the
negative environmental impact of their food wastage. Liz Goodwin, chief
executive, WRAP, said, "Our research showed that 90 per cent of
consumers are completely unaware of the amount of food they throw away.
Once attention is drawn to it however, we know that people are surprised
and keen to take action…
If we could halt the amount of food being wasted in this way, we would
make a big impact - the same as taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads."2 In
addition to lack of awareness, factors such as unplanned and excessive
purchasing, not consuming short-shelf-life items in time, poor storage,
etc., have been held responsible for this wastage.
This prompted WRAP to launch a social marketing campaign to change the
behavior of the public regarding food wastage. The ‘Love Food Hate
Waste' campaign was a first-of-its-kind campaign in the world with an
estimated budget of £2 million.
It targeted individual households as well as manufacturers and
restaurants. The campaign banked on publicity-generating initiatives at
the BBC's Good Food Show in Birmingham, UK, in November 2007. The
campaigners also planned to promote the concept during Christmas and the
New Year by urging people to take it up as a New Year's Resolution.
A website was also launched as a part of the campaign to create
awareness about food wastage and its negative impact, and educate
consumers and others about how this wastage can be curbed. The campaign
was supported by government, non-profit institutions such as the
UK-based voluntary organization for women, National Federation of
Women's Institute (NFWI), and celebrity chefs. For instance, NFWI
started the initiative called "Love Food Champions" that intended to
educate communities on how to minimize wastage of food.
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1] Established in December 2000, WRAP is a
not-for-profit organization that encourages consumers and business organizations
to efficiently use materials and recycle them. It intends to helps protect the
environment by curbing carbon emissions and minimizing landfills.
2] "Love Food Hate Waste Campaign Launched in the
UK," www.earthtimes.org, November 2, 2007. |
