15 Easy Ways To Reduce Food Waste in London

Food Waste in the UK

Some of these tips work anywhere in the UK and some anywhere in the world!

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts! (It’s Episode 26).

In this week’s podcast (also on YouTube) I chat to my friend Chloë Stewart, the founder of Nibsetc, a company which upcycles food waste into delicious, nutritious snacks, about what we can do to help combat food waste.

According to WRAP, the climate action NGO which works around the world and operates from 40+ countries, around a third of all food produced is wasted. And 70% of this occurs in households. And this third, as Chloë points out, is just counting what’s wasted after it leaves a farm AND it doesn’t include inedible food waste.

It’s a really fun and interesting chat, so I hope you’ll listen. You can also read the transcript the end of this post. The key takeaways and links to everything we discussed are here:

THE TOP FOODS WASTED IN THE UK

According to WRAP, 2018.

(not necessarily in order of the most wasted food to least wasted food)

  1. Potatoes (fresh)
  2. Milk
  3. Bread
  4. Meals (at home and bought ready-made)
  5. Fizzy drinks
  6. Fruit juices and smoothies
  7. Pork / ham / bacon
  8. Poultry (chicken / ham / duck)
  9. Carrots (fresh)
  10. Potatoes (processed)

TWO HELPFUL APPS TO REDUCE FOOD WASTE

  1. Olio – share food you don’t need with your neighbour or collect food from them. Everything offered here must be free. It’s now expanded to include non-edible items, too, and there’s a “wanted” section for people to list things they’re looking for.

    There are lovely people who also collect food from local supermarkets, cafes and bakeries which can then be collected from them.
  2. TooGoodToGo – food businesses can list food before closing time that would otherwise be thrown away and it can be bought at a discount. An excellent way to get an inexpensive dinner or to try a place you might not otherwise.

HOW TO AVOID WASTING FOOD AT HOME

  1. Use your freezer. Check out Kate Hall’s Instagram accounts here for loads of tips and guidance on Can I Freeze It?.
  2. Use your freezer recipes: Buy Shivi Ramoutar’s book The Ice Kitchen
  3. Buy “Too Good To Waste: How To Eat Everything” by Victoria Glass
  4. Buy Tom Hunt’s Eating for Pleasure, People and Planet for more recipes about using food you’d otherwise through away and eating with the seasons and with the environment in mind.
  5. Buy Poppy Cook‘s dedicated potato book so you will always be inspired to use those potatoes!
  6. Sign up for Odd Box. The fruit and veg subscription box that takes the produce the supermarket won’t. It might be wonky carrots, it might be squashes that are “too small” or tomatoes that are “too big” or beans that are “too long”, or it might just be there’s a surplus of courgettes.

    Use this link for £10 off your first box (affiliate link).

UK FOOD BUSINESSES THAT UPCYCLE “WASTE” FOOD

  1. Nibsetc – the best granola you’ll find made with juice pulp, currently from apples pressed for cider. Full of fibre and truly delicious!
  2. Toast Ale – beer made with bread that manufacturers can’t sell
  3. Rubie’s in the Rubble – jam, chutneys and other condiments made from slightly squashy or wonky fruit and vegetables.

LONDON RESTAURANTS THAT ARE AMBASSADORS OF THE CIRCULAR FOOD ECONOMY AND LOW FOOD WASTE

  1. Silo
  2. Apricity
  3. Eat Native

REQUEST BIGGER FOOD WASTE ACTION FOR YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD

If you don’t already have a food waste collection in your borough, write to your local MP and request one. It only takes a minute: Write to Your MP.

Transcript of my discussion with Chloë of Nibsetc on Food Waste

[00:00:00] in 2018, the UK threw away 20 million slices of bread equivalent to 1 million loaves every single day. Every day, they throw away four point. We throw away 4.4 million, whole potatoes, 920,000 whole bananas, 1.2 million, whole tomatoes, 720,000 whole oranges, 800,000 whole apples, 2.7 million whole carrots, the equivalent of 3.1 million glasses of milk and so much more.

[00:00:36] WRAP’s 2018 survey suggested that we threw away somewhere between 20 and 25% of all the food that was purchased either for, at home consumption or out and about in restaurants, cafes, et cetera. That is frightening. And what’s worrying is that the last survey they did in July 2021 suggested that habits have not changed at all.

[00:00:57] So we’re still throwing away the same amount of food. Uh, it did decrease at the beginning of the pandemic when we were all locked at home and had to use what we had, because we couldn’t necessarily get out to get more food, but steadily since April, 2020, the levels have just been climbing. On this week’s episode of the next delicious thing.

[00:01:17] We’re talking about the delicious things and not so delicious things that we are throwing away. I’m passionate about all topics around food. And this one in particular, I think, is just so important. And there are lots of relatively simple things that we can do to make it easier, not to be throwing things away.

[00:01:37] I always sat down with my friend, Chloe Stewart, who is the founder of nibs, et cetera, which is a business that upcycles food that would otherwise go to waste to create delicious and nutritious snacks. She understands so much more about this than I do. So I wanted to hear from her what exactly is going on and what we can.

[00:02:01] I have a few things that I know. So it was a really interesting conversation. I hope you’ll enjoy it. And if you stick around to the end, I will tell you a few of the things that I tried this week that you might want to add to the top of your list to try next. Here’s my conversation with Chloe I’m Jennifer O obviously you call me Jen, and this is Chloe Stewart, and you can call her Chloe

[00:02:25] I wanted to invite Chloe onto the podcast because. Chloe has an incredible business that is very mission led helping to address the issue of food waste. I wanted to pick her brain about what she can share with us about how big a challenge this is and what she’s doing, but also what we can do. I just find it so fascinating.

[00:02:45] How, how big of an issue it is and how, how little we’re doing about it. Basically. Hopefully there can be some inspiring things in this conversation as well. So, can you give us an indicator, Chloe of how, how big, like how much are we throwing away? From my understanding from a consumer’s perspective at a household level, we throw away the biggest percentage of everything that is thrown away in the UK? 

[00:03:10] Around the world, but particularly in the UK, there are some fantastic apps for home use Olio, which helps to share, um, food amongst households and also is collecting some people, collect food from supermarkets and other retailers, and then too good to go, which is for retailers to use, but for consumers to collect things at a lower price at the end of the day, so that they don’t go in the bin. So I will link to both of those and highly recommend you download those. But there are also things that are thrown away all throughout the food chain, and that is what Chloe’s business, et cetera helps to solve. But firstly, can we just talk a bit about how big the issue is?

[00:03:49] Yeah, sure. So, um, first of thanks for having me on podcast. 

[00:03:52] Pleasure 

[00:03:53] Yes. The, the issue of food waste is vast and it’s, it’s good to note the facts, but it can quickly be overwhelming at like how vast the issue is and how then disconnected it feels and how you then like, “oh, well, why should I do anything? Cause what is my small life to do?” For context, if food waste for our country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse.

[00:04:12] Gases after only the us and China, the emissions of food waste account for about 8% of like human caused greenhouse gas emissions. Um, which is huge, especially when you at the aviation industry, which, what does 8% really mean in aviation industry found is about 2%. So it’s huge for food waste. And then if we look at its household level, If you do a big grocery shop and you get five bags with groceries, you’re effectively throwing away one bag of those groceries over a year that amounts to about £700 of money thrown down the drain in your food waste, right?

[00:04:45] Yeah. Which is a significant amount, you know, you can do several days with those yeah. Maybe less so now, but you can do something with someone who pounds, especially when you consider that. Clearly there are people who don’t have that to throw away. So there are some [00:05:00] households who are. Throwing away a lot.

[00:05:02] Yeah, exactly. And of course these are averages and WRAP. W R A P is a great place to get the most up to date information about food waste. Obviously these reports aren’t done every year. Sadly, they should be that’s something I desperately wish was easier to find, you know, reportings on where food is wasted and how much is wasted and why it’s wasted.

[00:05:19] If we knew where that was and what was causing that and addressing, owning those problems. Where we’re making mistakes in systems, it would help it is entrepreneurs, just people in general, like find solutions for that. Yeah. Another crazy fact is that the food produced about a third of that is thrown away and that’s global one.

[00:05:37] Then if you imagine that all of that food would be enough to feed the world hungry all times over. It’s insane. When I opened the WRAP website, one of the first things they said, and I’m paraphrasing, but no one in the world. Should go hungry. And they said that that sounds like an ideal principle, but it’s actually true in that the amount of food, like you say, feed the world four times over, obviously there’s distribution issues and things that might not make that as smooth and easy as it could be, but.

[00:06:07] It’s quite scary that the stat that I read said 70% of the food that is wasted actually happens in the home, which sort of makes sense in that retailers and. Manufacturers and hospitality are all very focused on their bottom line, but then they’re also, it’s important to say that’s post farm gate that leaves the farm.

[00:06:31] A lot of waste happens on farms. 

[00:06:33] So this a hundred percent figure doesn’t include what is wasted in farms? 

[00:06:36] No, it doesn’t include farms. Yeah. 

[00:06:37] Wow. 

[00:06:38] And, and the waste that happens on farms is for a whole variety of reasons around Brexit. It was because there was, there were star shortages. And so people, the people that were left to pick that just went enough of them to be able to pick everything that had grown, which is obviously devastating.

[00:06:51] It also happens because a big supermarket’s last minute changed their mind to say, oh, we don’t need this order anymore. Or, oh, it’s not right for us or what have you. And so that leaves the farmers with. Um, you know, not much to do, but as they can’t do anything with it, which is why companies like odd box are really great because they work with these farmers to collect.

[00:07:08] That is the premise. Their business is to resell surplus or wonky for any of these reasons. If people aren’t unaware, odd box is a food delivery. Primarily fruit and vegetables subscription, and they take the food that the supermarkets don’t take because they might be too small or too large, or wooy, it’s very clever the way they do it.

[00:07:27] We subscribers, we love it. It comes with info sheets on, you know, why this fruit and veggie is in here, where it come from. And a lot of it is just surplus. Like, there’s just too much of it. Um, they’ve either grown too much or orders have been cancelled. So they’ve just got too much. It’s less the, the wonky at the moment.

[00:07:43] That’s interesting. Like you said, it’s not a blanket fix, you know, there’s a lot of food being produced. There are a lot of people going hungry and it’s not as easy as like putting that food. That’s being wasted into the house. People who need it, unfortunately, Different parts of the world have different issues at different stages of supply chain.

[00:08:00] But the point is is that there is enough food being produced for everyone on the planet. And when people are concerned about, you know, will we have enough food to feed the growing population on the planet at the moment, the numbers suggest that yes. And so surely efforts should be being put into maximizing the resources that we have from, you know, the earth resources to the processing resources, to all the, you know, the byproducts, which is what is cetera is really about.

[00:08:24] Is making the most of the resources that we have, and, you know, in the production of juice or in the production of beer, you have a huge portion juice specifically. Cause that’s what we’re focusing on. The moment you have, you know, anywhere from, um, a quarter to a third to even half, depending on the free pressing of that is left over as pulp and pulp is prominently fibre, is obviously a little bit of sugar and a little bit of flavour as well. And that fiber is really nutritious. 

[00:08:48] Yes. Really nutritious. 

[00:08:49] So we can use that as an ingredient for another product, which is kind what we’re doing. And so the idea of Nibsetc is to really try and, you know, valorise cost inefficiencies in production, supply chains, and through that find sort of more affordable nutrition for like the snacks and products that we make.

[00:09:05] That’s what I really love about your business in particular is the fact that we know that the UK. Us and many other countries are not getting enough fiber in their diet. And that’s primarily because as a population, we consume so many highly processed foods, which are generally quite low or completely devoid of fibre.

[00:09:24] And you are creating snack products that have that fibre put back in from a source where they’re otherwise going to waste. And so typically that fruit pulp, it will go to either animal feed, right. Or it can be going to straight into compost. So it’s. Maybe slightly less bad than putting it into landfill.

[00:09:42] But the issue with the food waste is that as it’s decomposing, right. That’s, it’s the gases that we don’t want. Yeah. So if it ends up in landfill, then as it rots it is emitting greenhouse gases rather than like feeding any kind of soil in the process. The reason why putting it in compost would [00:10:00] be better is that then if it’s in like a food, for example, doesn’t need to be necessarily in like.

[00:10:06] An anaerobic environment, unlike, you know, compostable packaging, which is not home compostable. So simply the sort of biodegradable compostable stuff needs to be in an anaerobic and temperature control

[00:10:16] Means without oxygen. 

[00:10:16] Sorry. Yes. in a temperature controlled vessel. Yeah. In order for it to compost properly.

[00:10:22] And then, you know, for the gases to be, to be caught and used in the right way. Whereas, if you are composting at home, your food or fruit pulp, or veggie pulp, or whatever that compost can be, you know, in a heap in the garden. And, and as long as you are sort of turning out regularly, that’s okay. Because of the sort of chemical composition that it will break down into, which is normally you’re looking for sort of water and a bit CO2 and, and that’s kind of what it will end up with, but if the food waste is composted or given to animals or going into like an anaerobic digester where you’re actually getting fuel off that as well, and that’s pretty cool.

[00:10:57] But unfortunately, most of it’s going that’s better summarised a significant portion is going into the bin. Sadly, there are some packaging. Format. So they are home compostable and some, some, some plastics, or they’re not coming fossil fuels plastic, and you can put those in your home compost. And they’re usually shouting that on the packaging that you can throw it into your home compost.

[00:11:19] So, yeah. And you do need to see, like, there is a difference between just compostable and home compostible and normally the packaging will say, if it’s. Home crossable cause it needs to be certified, but yeah, just to come back on the pulps in our research, we found that best case fruit much pulp is ending up as animal feed or waste energy mm-hmm so you are getting energy from it.

[00:11:36] Um, worst case it’s ending up in landfill, the best, best case in valorisation studies do show that it, it is better sort of socially, economically environmentally to upcycle and valry sites doing for human consumption. Mm-hmm so that’s what we’re trying. So Chloe makes delicious granola, which uses currently apple pulp from cider companies.

[00:11:56] Mm-hmm , but in the past you have also collected from smaller juice places as well. And there are plans for more, I believe. And also you’re looking at. Other potential food waste as well. Yes. The plan is to focus on and then as we grow, look at sourcing other byproducts and side streams or within the UK.

[00:12:15] Because it makes absolutely no sense to be like shipping byproducts internationally. Yes. So seeing what we produce here and what side streams result from that, to what we can, how we can use that. Is there anyone else using. These byproducts, whether it’s pulp or something else that you’re aware of at the moment, are there other companies doing the same thing globally?

[00:12:32] Yeah. And in the us, there are, they’re kind of leading the charge and upcycled foods, which is really cool. There are some brilliant companies up cycling brewer spent grain, the akara byproduct of making soy milk.

[00:12:45] Yeah. 

[00:12:45] And so it comes from soybeans. There are also people, a company making biscuits and baking flowers from the byproduct, oppressing, sunflower seeds for oil.

[00:12:55] So all sorts. And actually in Switzerland, there are a few more popping up around Europe. They’re starting to pop up over the past couple of years, as far as I know we are the first to commercialize. The use of juice, pulp in any product, and also be making upcycled snacks here in the UK Toast Ale, make beer from waste bread, like sandwich bread, and from some of the biggest sandwich producers in the UK.

[00:13:17] Um, so they’re up cycling that. Um, but yeah, in terms of up cycling byproducts into snacks, we’re the only guys doing at the moment. Cool. Is there anything that consumers can do to help apart from buy your product? Of course, but like has mentioned Olio and too Good To Go. The largest food waste items that I understand are potatoes.

[00:13:39] I was sent a great potato book last year. So if you need potato recipes, including sweet ones, uh, put a link to that and, and then bread is next. Also better use of freezer, I think can really help avoid foods being thrown away. Yeah. I’ll also link to a friend of mine who has some really great tips, fantastic Instagram channels about what you can freeze and tips, which is basically everything.

[00:14:04] Yeah. but yeah, exactly. And also, but like how to freeze them. So you’ll definitely use them again, rather than just ending up in your phrase. It being like, oh, Substance. I like, I definitely, I do. Cause I put it in my phrase. I’m definitely gonna remember what this liquid is like. Oh my God. Is it stuck? Is it juice?

[00:14:20] I dunno. Who knows? Um, yeah. Milk is also one of the most wasted food on the list products. Yeah. Which is. Really sad given, if you think about where milk is coming from and already that’s a really valuable resource, um, and we’re thrown that way and you can freeze milk. How does that work when it defrosts then?

[00:14:40] Uh, I don’t know, friends do it. Don’t freeze it in glass. Obviously. That’s a bit dangerous. I mean, I have done, you just have to make sure it’s not. Not full, full, um, but it is more dangerous, a plastic container or something like that. I haven’t done it because we don’t buy so much, but for bigger families who are like stocking up and buying lots at once mm-hmm then yeah, it [00:15:00]works.

[00:15:00] If I wasn’t doing this business, maybe I would start a fridge freezer business because I think that the fridge freezer should be designed so that the freezer is the larger portion of the unit. And the fridge is the much smaller, higher turnover things coming in and out. Faster. Yes. The freezer is really is what we should be using more.

[00:15:17] Yeah, but we don’t do that last slide. No, I agree. My freezer is constantly full. Yeah. Because it’s small. There’s not a lot of space and it’s really hard to figure out where things are to access so helpful to store things and all the shelves, everything stacked up and you can’t get to, to the back. Exactly.

[00:15:33] Should have gone for the one with drawers but it was outside of my budget at the time that we purchased it. So if you are looking to buy a new fridge visa, there are ones withdrawals, which like are much more accessible for all things you lose in there. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely agree. That would help anything else.

[00:15:50] There are a few things that I think are really helpful to bear mind. One is best before dates, which I think, and I think as it Morrison’s have now, or will be removing best before dates on milk or yogurt, basically. They were obviously put into place so that same markets could cover their own bots in terms of making sure no one got sick for any food there, but they’re often like weeks and weeks in advance of where they need to be, which means that we are kind of buying new things and throwing out old things unnecessarily.

[00:16:16] And this is the sort of easiest thing you can do is just to like, trust your senses. You know, look. do you see any fur on it? yeah, if you don’t then maybe smell it. Yeah. Does it smell funky? Uh, and then if you’re so not sure, like with milk, I’ve kept milk a month past its best before day in the fridge and every day I would sort of look at it, smell it and then taste it.

[00:16:36] And if it tastes sour, then maybe don’t eat it. . Yeah, but if it doesn’t and it tastes like milk, then. You know, ideally yeah. Pour it on the spoon before your cereal. 

[00:16:44] So that’s right. Cereal. I did actually, once in college I was like in a bit rush and I was having a quick bowl of cereal and, uh, And I said, oh, the cereal tastes like apple.

[00:16:53] And then I realized afterwards it actually was said that milk was off and I’d had sour milk with my cereal. I’ve done. I was fine. 

[00:17:02] I mean, it used to be that sour milk was just buttermilk. Right. So, well, there, it is also a thing. So yeah. I don’t know if that’s true anymore, whether the milk will hurt you if it doesn’t taste good, probably guess to throw it out, ideally.

[00:17:11] But the point is you can trust your sense. Before you look at the best for four days, a good egg test. For example, they say that eggs last by three weeks, past their best before just put them in in water. Make sure the container is clear. If it floats. Bad egg. Um, it means that there’s too much gas in the shell that’s been created as it’s gone past its best before date.

[00:17:31] If it doesn’t float, if it’s, you know, like this, then it’s perfectly fine. If it’s kind of on its tip, then you know that it’s, I maybe wouldn’t eat it raw. Definitely like cook it or bake it. And if it’s really on the tip, then definitely make sure you’re eating it like fully cooked. Okay. But as, as soon as it floats it means it’s bad.

[00:17:46] That’s a good, a useful test. That is, yeah. I remember the floating part. School and learning that, which I found fascinating, but so many people dunno it. And also, I didn’t really realize that, like, it was just angle the big, so I always wonder when it’s kind of just wobbling like in the middle and like, but knowing that you could probably cook that and that’ll be fine.

[00:18:01] That’s that’s okay. Yeah. Or bake just wouldn’t eat it raw. Yeah. Like, yeah. Not for mayonnaise or no. Or like in a sunnyside up egg, or something like that. Yes. Yeah. So, so trusting your senses. Looking at best before dates. Loving your freezer, batch cooking. If you can. I think it’s such a useful way to save yourself some time during the week.

[00:18:21] Those are kind of the main, the main things that I would suggest I would say buying less, but it often feels like a bit of a luxury deal to buy less and like pop to the shops if you need anything. Cause obviously you get better bulk deals. You can get better deal if here to big supermarkets and you don’t always live right next door to those. 

[00:18:35] With this being such a big problem, how’s it been growing this business? Has it been easy to just, I mean, you can’t, I’m guessing you can’t just like walk around, knock on the door and be like, can I have your pulp please? 

[00:18:47] Well, effectively, that’s what I’ve been doing. 

[00:18:49] Okay. Great. 

[00:18:49] For a few years. But you know, you, I’m guessing you need some refrigerated transportation to move it at least.

[00:18:54] Yeah. And so, okay. 

[00:18:56] Maybe not. Like if you’re picking up from like it’s only a 20 minute walk, maybe that’s perfect. 

[00:19:00] Yeah. It’s kind of been evolving as I’ve gone from sourcing, you know, from my local juice bar to a canteen, to a, you know, largest scale producer. Different producers have different setups.

[00:19:14] Sometimes they have refrigerated storage. Sometimes they don’t, it’s a big learning curve. The challenge is that the supply chain doesn’t exist. So there are no processes in place to facilitate this. So we’re kind of not totally making them up as we go, but we are in the sense that. They haven’t been made up before.

[00:19:31] So based on following health and safety guidelines and understanding how long something can be UN refrigerated, or how quality control raw materials. Yes. And the containers in which they sit. I was thinking that because if it’s going to animal feed or to just to be wasted, turn it to fuel or to be compost.

[00:19:48] And then like, it doesn’t really matter how clean the bucket is. Um, right. But if it’s going to be used for human consumption again, then you wanna make sure that that’s like, yeah, Great. Exactly. Exactly. So those are kind of the bigger challenges, cuz all that takes a lot of [00:20:00]time and testing and for the suppliers to then be on board with investing their own time and resources into like setting these up with you.

[00:20:07] And while on the surface, people think it sounds like a really good idea. Are they always willing to make the investment of time and resource. Not necessarily. So that’s been a real challenge. Some of them are paint to throw away there. Yeah. Which is where we hope to help save produces money. So, you know, waste to energy is a service that you pay for as a business.

[00:20:27] That’s why smaller businesses often just finish landfill. Cause it’s cheaper and easier. That’s kind of where we wanna help save people money and show that, you know, we can buy it off fuel. We can, you know, save you money if you’re not paying for these collectors. So that’s the angle that we’re paying for all these byproducts, because there’s sort of five heavier protein heavy.

[00:20:44] It requires a little bit more TLC to turn into something that’s delicious, but home, obviously it’s much easier to, you know, compost it or throw it away. If you’re juicing at home, you can use it, but it just takes a bit more time. Obviously we busy lives and we don’t always have the time to put into that, which is why what’s with nips, et cetera.

[00:21:01] And just with my own personal journey and starting this business, I want to try and make that easier for people so that they see that as something to look forward to rather than a drag. But also it’s a question of, you know, using our imagination and being creative as Doug McMaster says, you. Founder and creator of silo, the waste is a total failure of our imagination.

[00:21:18] Mm. And it’s true. It’s laziness like waste doesn’t exist in, in ecosystems, in, in forests. And, you know, it’s, it’s humans that have created this concept of waste. Yes. Which is why it sounds, you know, waste is, is very overwhelming and a really big problem. But it’s optimistically. I have hope that humans can be the ones to get rid of that concept and, and work towards more secular economies.

[00:21:41] I would say, not just laziness. But also a subset of having a very capitalist society focused on growth. There is definitely an element of when the population that their resources are stretched. So to asking them to do some things, I think is… 

[00:21:56] i, I totally hear what you’re saying, but if we look at the kind of capitalist angle and looking at a business’s bottom line, it’s in the business’s interest to not throw things away and waste something. So if you’re buying a fruit, a carrot, say, for juicing, you’ve paid a certain amount for that carrot. 

[00:22:11] Yes. 

[00:22:12] And you will get a certain amount for the juice, but what if you could also get. A bit more for the pulp. 

[00:22:16] Yes. 

[00:22:17] Not only would you be sort of increasing revenue, would you decreasing like, you know, the cost program of the carrot effectively?

[00:22:22] Yes. Yeah. You’d be spreading out that cost. So it is in a business interest. Mm. Turn out waste and we’ve kind of accepted through, you know, building speed and convenience that we will have, we will have loss and that’s just, it’s just a sunk cost. I think it is a bit of laziness to be honest and, and, and a home point of view.

[00:22:41] Yes, everyone has different needs and different resources. But if we look at like really rural communities, those are communities that don’t waste at all because they can’t afford to. And so that’s, I think where we can learn the most. And I think it’s, it’s really important that we respect that. And remember that this from zero waste movement, it’s not something new.

[00:22:57] It’s not something I’ve created. It’s not something anyone today has created. Yeah. It’s kind of, one of the oldest standing kind of MO’s for life is just don’t waste what you have. Yes. And make the most of what you have. I was going to also say that it’s a function of the capitalist in the sense that.

[00:23:14] There’s incentive for businesses to make the waste invisible to us. So we don’t in this country generally, apart from the rubbish we put out in our bins that gets collected. We don’t see where that goes. And so there’s this feeling of freedom when it comes to throwing things away because we don’t see or experience the consequences of it apart from potentially like it costing us £700 more per year that we do in small chunks.

[00:23:38] And perhaps don’t like, feel immediately. For most businesses they want for us to purchase more is great. It’s helpful for them, for us to purchase more than we need, because that increases their overall revenue. So I think there’s definitely a mismatch in goals there where whilst manufacturers might want us not to throw away as much.

[00:23:59] If we throw away lesson we’re purchasing less. And that’s always, I’ve always found that really confusing. Like as when I was a buyer looked. Waste and availability and that balance. And you want to make sure you’ve got everything that people need, but inevitably that means you’re going to have to throw some things away.

[00:24:17] So there’s always a tension there, but also like the frustration I found when I was working as a buyer is this expectation that every year you will have more revenue, greater revenue and greater profit. So somehow you were supposed. Increase either the amount that people purchased or increased the price they purchased it at.

[00:24:34] So you’re pushing up prices every year. And then you’re trying to also push down the price that you’re paying for your suppliers to increase your margin so that you, as the retailer are constantly making more money. But into doing that, you are either. Having consumers buy things they don’t need. You’re taking market share from other retailers, or you are pushing on the supply chain who don’t have as much power or you’ve got like marketing and you’re creating new customers as well.

[00:24:58] So that’s always a [00:25:00] possibility, but I do find that disconnect quite challenging. I think pushing back as a consumer by purchasing more mindfully. So that we’re not throwing away as much stuff. And like, I love what Olio and too good to go are doing. Do they allow a lot more efficiencies from the system?

[00:25:17] Yeah, they’re really useful apps. And I recognize that like our product, for example, is certain price point at the moment and that’s something we’re working to improve and make more accessible to more people, but things like Olio and too good to go are sort of helping people at different, you know, in different sort of price brackets.

[00:25:30] I think that’s really important as well. But at least I think being a premium product is not just about like saving the world. You’re also actually providing a product that is in my opinion, faster periods at any other grid out there. and, and so like, that’s at least then people who have the means to be able to yeah.

[00:25:47] Be the first movers to improve the situation, like to invest in what you are doing that helps systems to allow other companies to do that. Yeah. And bring the price down for everybody. They’re doing it and being rewarded by something delicious and better for them as well. I think it’s, it’s important that we don’t feel bad for not being perfect in this as well.

[00:26:08] You know, we will all throw things in there cause I throw away more than I would like to, but we also live in that makes it really easy for us to do so. And like, you know, like you were saying, it’s, we’re encouraged to always buy more and we always need more. They’re all a part of that system. I guess if I was, you know, coming back to what I suggest or recommend if you’re trying to cut back your waste at home, I would pick a room or a routine that you enjoy or wanna start with and then look at how can I change this part of my routine and how can I make a swap here? Or how can I, and you know, I often. The most sustainable things are the things that you already have, or that you already do.

[00:26:41] And you don’t need to go and buy, you know, the trendy scrub for your dishes. You know, you can, you can use what you’ve already got, what you’ve already bought and, and not feel guilty about that. It’s the same for food, you know, use what you’ve got, use, what you’ve got in the cupboard and don’t feel bad about throwing something away every now and then, you know, it will happen.

[00:26:57] You just have to start somewhere. Um, like you say, people who have more of the financial means and more of the time to be able. Make these changes and, and, you know, vote with your wallet, I think is really important. Hopefully that will allow businesses like us to then grow and be more accessible and, uh, more convenient for more people.

[00:27:14] Absolutely. I am going to also link to a couple of chefs who have great recipes on how to use waste or things that we would otherwise waste and to the O and to too good to go or link to toast ale and to the freezer guide that I mentioned for people to look at, if you have questions or please feel free to reach out to me.

[00:27:35] If I don’t know the answers, I will try and find out or I’ll lovely first and then other people yeah. Would welcome any questions. If there are specific things around food waste at home. Things you were just dying to know about, you know, cycling juice, pulp, or anything like that, or about Nibsetc. I will also link to Nibsetc, of course, how to get delicious granola in your life. Yeah’s also available at Borough Market. Yeah, we sell online. We’re at Borough every week. You might see ‘s smiling face there. Say hi, you do. Uh, yeah. Do come say hello. Hopefully this has been inspiring to have a look at your fridge and your freezer and see how you can perhaps slightly adjust your purchasing habits and cooking habits.

[00:28:20] And throwing away habits. Write to your local MP. If you don’t already have food waste collection and you don’t have space, even if you do have space in your garden to compost, if doesn’t mean everybody else will. So it’s worth a letter to your local MP. I’ll also link to how to do that. Cause it’s super easy.

[00:28:34] It takes like less than a minute. There are also some great restaurants actually in London. If you are looking to. Experience the concept of low waste cooking, low waste restaurants. Silo is obviously like the, the pinnacle of this in Hackney. It’s my favorite restaurant in London. Not just because it’s zero waste, I think it’s just brilliant and ingenious and, and so creative.

[00:28:55] In fact, the whole space is upcycled in one way or another, which I think is very cool. And Apricity has just opened. Yes. That by chef Chantelle Nicholson. Yes. We’re gonna be chatting to Chantelle at some point because she’s got really interesting thoughts about waste in restaurants, but also about like have using plants and sustainable food systems.

[00:29:13] Yeah. Sustainable food are so good. If we think of others, then they will also be in the list. And if you have one and you’d like to reach out and make sure I add it to the blog, then please do that. Thank you so much, Chloe. Thank you for having me. It’s been fun and interesting and inspiring too. So until next week that I am going to have a good long hard look at myself and my habits when I get home. uh, hopefully it’s inspired you to do the same, 

[00:29:36] But don’t feel guilty about it. 

[00:29:38] Yes. 

[00:29:38] One step at a time. 

[00:29:39] There’s enough things to feel guilty about, do what you can when you can, or you start asking the questions yes. Of your supplies of your producers.

[00:29:46] Yes. Uh, of your shops. I love yourself. Thanks so much for listening and you for having me, everyone. Thanks. Take care. Thank you so much for listening. I am excited to share some more news with you in the coming weeks as promised [00:30:00] the things that need to go to the top of your list to try next one kind of random thing that I stumbled across.

[00:30:04] If you happen to be visiting the museum of home, which used to be known as the Gefrye Museum thankfully has changed, because he was a colonise and a racist and… many other things, Also a philanthropists who paid for the museum initially, at least. Anyway, it’s a great museum. And just a couple of doors down.

[00:30:21] There is a unassuming grocery called Troy Grocery. It seems to be family run. And I walked inside because my daughter wanted an orange and discovered that there was this full salad bar, including vine leaves and hummus and some cooked foods. And Faffel so I ordered a. The large box was five pounds 50 and it was all so delicious.

[00:30:45] So if you want a cheap eats lunch for take away somewhere, then definitely go and check it out. It is a short walk from Layla’s shop, which was my other recommendation to you for this week. Great. If you want to sit down and eat, uh, they have restaurant as well as tiffin boxes to take away. I haven’t tried their savoury food yet, although I’ve heard good things.

[00:31:03] I bought the lemon bar and the chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. They were both delicious, a lemon bar. If you didn’t know, is a shortbread base, essentially with a lemon curd on top, and then it’s all baked. So you bake the shortbread first. Then the lemon curd gets baked on top of it and it becomes this like, um, just soft Ty custody, kind of.

[00:31:31] Not custody as in dairy, but just squidgy and really lemony. And it’s delicious. So highly recommend those. They change the things that they sell. There’s only two or three items every day, and they’re all different. Another place you can go to get lemon Barss, which is very good is bake street, which is also in east.

[00:31:51] These recommendations and others are always sent out by email every Wednesday. So if you would like to receive them, you can go to the next delicious thing.com and sign up. Next week, I’ll be back with some news. So I look forward to chatting to you then take care. And obviously as always, I wish you very happy eating.

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