End 90% of Food Waste in the UK Tomorrow

In 2015 the Theresa May government introduced the plastic bag charge. It forced large retailers to charge 5p to all customers.

The money that the retailers made from the scheme (£200million) were voluntarily donated to charity.

Of even more significance plastic bag usage dropped by 97%; from 7.6 billion plastic bags in 2014 to 197 million plastic bags in 2021.

All the fact and figures are from 10p bag charge turns the tide on plastic waste.

This extraordinarily effective idea can be applied to food waste in the UK.

• 50 million chickens are wasted in the UK each year.

• 100 million pints of milk are tipped down the drain each year in the UK

• One third of all food produced across the global is lost or waste.

• 240,00 tonnes of food is wasted by UK supermarkets every year.

• If food waste was a country, it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

How to reduce food waste?

Very simply; don’t tax the consumer but the corporates. Every large industrial supermarket / corporate / restaurant must pay the equal purchase value of any food that is wasted.

This could apply to entities that have larger than £100mm annual revenue; entities above £50mm could pay half the purchase value and entities above £10mm could pay a quarter the purchase value.

In fact, this would parallel a policy on business rates where commercial landlords are taxed after 3 months on a vacant property. This is a tax usually borne by the tenant but is imposed on the landlord if he/she fails to find a suitable tenant.

This legislation would not only bring in additional revenue to end food poverty and carbon offset scenes but furthermore dramatically slash needless food waste.

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