Mayor urges people to support Food Waste Action Week
14 March 2025
Derry City and Strabane District Council is joining organisations across the country to support Love Food Hate Waste’s Food Waste Action Week, running from 17th – 23rd March 2025.
Food Waste Action Week is the flagship annual event delivered by WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste. The campaign helps households develop the tools they need to cut food waste at home. This year, Food Waste Action Week will continue to focus on raising awareness of the benefits of buying loose fruit and veg.
With food waste costing on average £1,000 for a household of four every year, Food Waste Action Week will help shoppers to save money and waste less food by shopping for loose produce.
WRAP’s research has identified the potential to reduce household food waste by removing the packaging on uncut fresh fruit and veg, enabling us to buy closer to our needs as well as the ‘bonus’ benefit of eliminating a significant amount of unnecessary packaging.
WRAP recently called for a packaging ban on 21 fruit and veg items, to be developed via a formal consultation process. This recommendation has been created in consultation with industry stakeholders from across the supply chain. Selling these 21 items loose has the potential to save in the region of 100,000 tonnes of edible fruit and vegetables from being wasted annually in people's homes as well as saving 13,000 tonnes of plastic film.
WRAP has identified that, to drive action across the whole UK food system and help overcome the challenges faced by industry, policy change would create a level playing field and unlock action that is essential to enabling people to choose what they’ll use and buy more uncut fruit and veg loose.
Looking ahead to Food Waste Action Week, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Lilian Seenoi Barr, said: “We are all guilty of buying too much and grabbing pre-packaged fruit and vegetables for convenience. But buying loose produce not only reduces waste, it reduces expense, so it’s a win win for any household.
“I would really encourage everyone to use their food waste bins so their organic waste can be reused for compost, and to think about ways they can reduce the amount of household waste. With a bit more planning ahead and by following Love Food Hate Waste’s advice we could all benefit, both now and in the long term. Why not make a start during Food Waste Action Week?”
Jackie Bailey, Senior Campaign Manager Love Food Hate Waste, said: “We know buying loose fruit and veg has the potential to significantly cut the amount of food ending up in the bin – now is the time for retailers and shoppers to make that a reality. Increasing loose fruit and veg offerings in store will not only reduce hard to recycle plastics, it will also enable shoppers to buy closer to their needs, slashing waste and stopping tens of thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions.”
For more information on food waste and recycling advice go to derrystrabane.com/recycling