Food Waste Action Week: How To Get Involved

Each year, around 4.7 million tonnes of food waste is thrown away by UK households. Much of this is down to people cooking, preparing or serving too much – which is not only bad for the planet, it’s costing us around £4.9 billion every year. That’s why Food Waste Action Week was introduced: to highlight the simple ways we can change our shopping and cooking habits to help the environment (and our bank accounts). It’s returning from 18–24 March 2024 with a new theme. Here’s everything you need to know.

What Is Food Waste Action Week?

Organised by Love Food Hate Waste, Food Waste Action Week is an annual campaign designed to show individuals and organisations how they can contribute to global food waste reduction efforts. 

The initiative began in 2021, and has taken place every March since, with a different focus each time. Last year’s theme was ‘Win. Don’t Bin.’, encouraging people to reduce food waste in their homes, particularly by using up leftovers, with a total of 162 organisations getting involved across 12 countries. Love Food Hate Waste’s ultimate aim is to halve food waste by 2030. 

What Is The 2024 Theme?

The theme for this year’s Food Waste Action Week is ‘Choose What You’ll Use’. It will highlight the benefits of buying loose fruit and vegetables, a simple swap which can have large benefits. WRAP research shows that if all apples, bananas and potatoes were sold loose, we could save 60,000 tonnes of food waste, as people will only buy what they need.

Catherine David, Director, Behaviour Change & Business Programmes at WRAP: ‘WRAP is thrilled to be launching our fourth annual Food Waste Action Week. We are calling on our partners at every stage of the food supply chain to liberate more fruit and veg from its packaging so that shoppers have the freedom to choose only what they will use. No one wants to see good food going to waste because they bought too much. We urge all our partners to get behind our campaign and help their customers waste less food by providing more options, and helping them buy only what they need.’

How To Get Involved

Businesses and individuals can get involved by hosting events, and spreading awareness surrounding the campaign and its messages.

WRAP is also hosting an event on 21 March, which will involve a series of thought-provoking sessions from experts and industry professionals. Various talks are being streamed online throughout the day, covering topics like food waste recycling, citizen attitudes towards buying loose fruit and vegetables, and creating systemic change to accelerate progress on household waste prevention. You can find out more and sign up to the talks here.

And, of course, everyone can get involved by taking steps to reduce their own personal food waste. We’ve got some top tips from chefs here, plus suggestions on how to store fruit and veg efficiently, and some zero-waste recipes here.

Find out more at lovefoodhatewaste.com