Sheffield food waste: Council and charity sets out strategy for collection service in city

Sheffield Council and Recycle4Sheffield have partnered up to join the campaign of reducing food waste, announcing plans for a government-led food collection service.

Sarah Clayton, a member of Love Food Hate Waste which runs the Food Waste Action Week, said: “If global food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the US.”

Within the UK alone 4.5 million tonnes of food is wasted – enough to fill 90 Albert Halls.

Sheffield Council has acted by announcing plans for a government-led food waste collection service, commencing in 2023.

Tim Huggan, councillor for Crookes and Crosspool, has led calls for a trial Food Waste Service.

He said: “We can use the trial to identify issues with the service to iron out glitches and basically get the city ready for the full roll-out.

“If people start separating their food waste and see how much they are wasting, they will soon reduce the amount of food waste they have.”

Despite the issue of food waste, Sheffield Council is also dealing with the problem of food poverty in the city. During a council meeting in September 2021, a notice of motion put forward by Coun Ruth Milsom revealed the number of children eligible for free school meals in Sheffield stands at 24,000.

Love Food Hate Waste provides free recipe advice on how to minimise food waste with limited ingredients.

To find out more on the Food Action Waste Week, go to: https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/citizen-behaviour-change/love-food-hate-waste/key-campaigns/food-waste-action-week