Save time and money by wasting less food this Food Waste Action Week

Cheshire West and Chester Council is encouraging residents to save time and money by wasting less food this Food Waste Action Week (6 – 12 March).

Food Waste Action Week is a national campaign developed by the Waste Resource Action Programme (WRAP) as part of Love Food Hate Waste to raise the profile of food wastage. This year’s theme, “Win, Don’t Bin”, focuses on making meals go further, which can help people to save money on food bills in the context of the increased cost of living, as well as reducing waste.

WRAP estimates that 1.1 million tonnes of food are wasted every year from UK homes, with an average of 8 meals wasted every week. This costs the average UK family with two children £60 a month, or over £700 a year. This means Cheshire West and Chester residents could save a collective total of over £1.8million every year through better meal planning and knowledge around using left over food.[1]

Food Waste Action Week aims to increase people’s confidence in ‘using up leftovers’ by promoting a range of easy techniques which can have a great impact on reducing food waste in the home. This includes saving leftovers, putting them in an appropriate container, labelling and storing it in the fridge or freezer and then re-heating or eating cold at a later stage.

Introducing more sustainably sourced food to your diet, reducing food waste and recycling any waste you do create, are just some of the actions included in the West Cheshire Climate Emergency Response Plan, which sets out how the borough will become carbon neutral by 2045.

Cheshire West and Chester households have a brown bin for residents to put any food waste that cannot be saved or reused, which is collected weekly by the Council for recycling. The Council recycled 10,579 tonnes of food waste in 2021-22.

Cllr Karen Shore, Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Strategic Transport, said:

“The Council is proud to be supporting Food Waste Action Week. With just a few simple changes, people can save money and time by eating good leftover food that would otherwise be thrown away. Any food that can’t be saved or reused can be put into your brown bin for food waste. Recycling food waste is a really easy step that we can all take to help reduce our carbon footprint, and can also stop bad smells coming from your household bin.”

If you are not currently recycling food waste, a free new or replacement brown food waste bin can be ordered on the Council website:

Order new or replacement bin | Cheshire West and Chester Council

More information about food waste in Cheshire West and Chester can be found on the Council website:

Food waste | Cheshire West and Chester Council

Residents can visit the Love Food Hate Waste website for useful bespoke tips and guidance and a quiz on how to avoid creating food waste:

Love Food Hate Waste | Food Waste prevention