Food waste is a significant problem as EU countries waste 89 million tonnes of food every year and this is predicted to increase to over 120 million by 2020.
Households in London waste 910,000 tonnes of food every year (around two-thirds of which could have been eaten). An estimated 90,000 Potatoes are wasted within London homes every year and 2.6 million slices of bread are wasted every day.
WRAP, London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) and Groundwork London delivered the project.
TRiFOCAL addressed three key issues, including:
- The prevention of food waste by changing planning, shopping, storage and meal preparation.
- The promotion of healthy and sustainable eating.
- The recycling of unavoidable food waste.
Peter Maddox, director at WRAP, said: “TRiFOCAL is the first project of its kind. It has proved that combining messaging around healthy and sustainable eating with food waste prevention and recycling can deliver real impact.
“TRiFOCAL’s unique model has attracted attention across Europe, and we’re setting the standard in how we might tackle citizen behaviour change around sustainable food behaviours in the future.”
The Small Change, Big Difference campaign has been a success in getting TRiFOCAL’s message out to a large number of Londoners. The campaign was primarily aimed at 18 to 34-year-olds to help them change the way people buy, eat and dispose of their food.
LWARB’s chair Dr Liz Goodwin OBE, added: “This has been a challenging but inspiring project, creating engaging campaign content which has reached Londoners right across the capital.
“The results are gratifying: reducing avoidable food waste by an average of 9% is a meaningful contribution towards tackling the climate change impacts of food waste and helping Londoners save money in the process.”
TRiFOCAL engaged with all 33 London boroughs, with a focus on 15 boroughs and an in-depth style evaluation conducted in six boroughs.
Lindy Kelly, executive director at Groundwork London, commented: “It’s been inspiring to have seen so many communities across London actively play a role in TRiFOCAL’s success.
“We are proud to be sharing the learning, impact and resources from schools to community groups, and look forward to seeing the award-winning project replicated in more cities across the UK and Europe.”
TRiFOCAL has created an education pack for schools to teach young people about food waste prevention, healthy sustainable eating and recycling inedible food.
To read the full report, visit: http://trifocal.eu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/TRiFOCAL-Summary-Report.pdf.