Circular Economy Showcase
Food
Welcome to the Food Waste Circular Economy Showcase
An initiative delivered by The Rediscovery Centre in strategic partnership with the EPA.
Why does food waste matter? What is the link between food waste, climate change and ecological breakdown?
Well, did you know that food waste contributes 8-10% of all global greenhouse gas emissions?
When food decomposes, methane is produced: a gas which has a 100 year warming potential 25 times greater than Co2. Compost heaps emit methane, and therefore composting, while better than landfill, is not a solution. Furthermore, when food is wasted, the resources used to produce that food are also wasted (water, fertiliser, transport fuel, packaging)
What is happening here in Ireland?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland generated approximately 770,316 tonnes of food waste in 2020. To make matters worse 8 % of the population of Ireland are at risk of food poverty, while food goes to waste.
The Irish Government’s Food Waste Prevention Roadmap aims to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. This is in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12 which states that: “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains”.
Explore this showcase to discover how to prevent food waste and inspire you with actions and tools you can use to value food and fight food waste.
Growing Food
From Farm & Field
In Ireland, at the production and processing level, we lack the data to accurately estimate how much food is wasted per year, but it could be as high as 500,000 tonnes
If the food grown by a producer doesn’t match the specifications of a supermarket’s order, it is often cheaper for the crop to be ploughed back into the ground, than to be saved for another use. This can happen if there’s unexpected weather such as drought, heavy rain, and a crop is affected, or with pest damage.
Waste can occur in processing too. If something is accidentally mislabelled it can be too expensive to relabel, so it is dumped. At distribution centres a single broken unit can lead to a whole pallet being destroyed. In the processing and manufacturing stage, between the farm and the store, 497,000 tonnes are wasted.
Listen in to our webinar recording on fighting food waste, held during the public consultation on the Government’s Food Waste Prevention Roadmap.
Seeds of change
Growing food yourself cuts out the need for transport or processing. Apart from washing the dirt off in the kitchen sink, so nothing gets wasted.
Organically grown produce will also last longer on the shelf/in the fridge, because it is more dense in nutrients so you have longer to use it once it’s been harvested. Alongside the financial value, you’ll be less likely to waste a few tomatoes or berries that you picked yourself. Furthermore, growing your own food also makes you more connected to seasonality, so you’ll be a more responsible shopper when you do go to the supermarket.
Of course, not everyone has access to land where they can grow, and not everyone has the time and energy to grow, so there needs to be reform in how we grant people access to arable land. This would involve the widespread opening of community gardens, access to grant money to start gardens at home, education programs in small scale organic growing, and the shortening of the work week to allow for work in the garden.
SYMBIOBEER
SYMBIOBEER
Symbiobeer is a success story of preventing food waste by turning bread into beer and back again.
Did you know bead is Ireland’s most wasted food? In the Symbiobeer brewing process, waste bread is utilised as a substitute for virgin malted grain to create a new beer and subsequently a new bread will be produced using outputs from the production of the new beer creating a closed loop (bread to beer to bread) - the circular economy in action! *Bread is Ireland’s most wasted food
Bioeconomy Week Ireland: Food Rescue Café
A talk on food waste prevention and surplus food use in Cafés
Overview
The Rediscovery Centre hosted a discussion and workshop on food waste prevention and surplus food use in social enterprise and commercial cafés.
The workshop was for people working in the food sector and was organized as part of Bioeconomy Ireland Week 2023 and the EPA Green Enterprise Food Rescue and Research Café project. This workshop helped to inform guidelines on how cafés could successfully incorporate surplus food into their menus. Tips on food waste prevention were also discussed.
Presentations
Buying Food
Changing consumption
At store level, 100,000 tonnes of food is wasted each year.
Food waste in shops occurs for a variety of reasons. Something as simple as weather can change consumer buying patterns. Supermarkets routinely overstock, because a well packed shelf encourages people to buy.
Furthermore, the Irish restaurant and food service industry wastes over 200,000 tonnes of food a year, while it’s estimated that around 60% of that waste is avoidable.
Solutions in Ireland
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Cream of the Crop
A Dublin based Gelato makers combat food waste by using surplus ingredients that would otherwise end up in landfills and transforming them into delicious Gelato and Sorbets without the use of artificial flavours, colours or additives.
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FoodCloud
FoodCloud helps redistribute surplus food from supermarkets and suppliers to charities to help tackle food waste and food poverty at the same time.
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Too Good to Go
This app lets you buy and collect food from cafes, restaurants, hotels and shops that haven’t sold their food in time- at a discounted price – so it gets eaten instead of wasted.
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WASTED
WASTED is a national food waste prevention education programme for chefs and food service teams run by GIY and supported by the EPA and the Government of Ireland.
Design Toolkits and Resources
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Go for Reduced Price
Prioritising food in the reduced section, which is in danger of being thrown out, is a good way of ensuring that food from the store will be used, not to mention kinder on your pocket!
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Avoid pre-prepared food
Stay away from pre-prepared foods, like chopped fruit and veg, they go off much faster, are more expensive!
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Choose in season
Choosing foods while they are in season reduces the resources needed to grow, transport and store them. It reduces supply chain food waste and the overall carbon footprint. Without the need for long term storage or forced growth, buying seasonal usually means buying food at its tastiest! What’s more, buying locally produced food keeps money in your community supporting rural Irish businesses.
Sharecity
Using data from five years of in-depth international research alongside workshop findings, Sharecity have developed three alternative scenarios for the future of urban food sharing in 2050. A desirable outcome, a continuation of “business as usual” and a tech-focussed future of food growth. Which one do you prefer?
Don’t forget to…
At Home
Household waste
Current household waste is estimated to be at 250,000 tonnes per year. Systemic changes are most pressing, but personal changes can be made to reduce waste too.
In the final section of this food waste showcase, explore food waste recipes and hacks that can lead you to a more sustainable and circular lifestyle at home.
Food Waste Recipes
Food Waste Hacks
