Food waste has never been a bigger issue and a complex one at that. The Regent Street & St James’s Food Waste Pledge is here to make dining out and reducing waste easier. We’ve pulled together some facts about food waste to help set the record straight and help you reduce your impact.
Not-so-fun food waste facts
Did you know…
- One third of edible food produced globally is wasted every year
- Greenhouse gases emitted from wasted food breaking down in landfill equates to the same level of an entire country. To put this into context, landfill would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the USA and China. In the UK alone, around 100,000 tonnes of readily available and perfectly edible food is never eaten
- Annually, this amounts to a cost of £2.5billion
- Enough food is wasted in the UK service industry to fill The Shard nearly 11 times every year
How can you dine-out more consciously?:
Whether you’re dining at one of our participating restaurants or seeking tips on how to be more food-waste conscious day-to-day, we’ve pulled together some suggestions on how to reduce the amount of food you waste:
- Ask the restaurant team to help guide your menu choices
- Check portion sizes to avoid over-ordering
- If you’re keen to try a few different dishes, check whether you’re able to take your food home
- Visit our recipes pages to try and make our food-waste-friendly recipes at home
- If you’re ordering a drink, check whether the straws being used are plastic free. If not, politely decline
How can you dine-in more consciously?:
- Whenever you can, recipe plan in advance to avoid wasting ingredients
- Only buy what you need, especially when it comes to fresh produce
- Use a compost bin in your kitchen or compost heap in your garden. Composting at home for just one year can save global warming gases equivalent to all the CO2 your kettle produces annually. Read more here
- Get creative and create a food-waste-friendly meal using leftover ingredients from the fridge and store-cupboards. Find our Zero Waste Carrot recipe from tibits here.
Stay in touch on our food waste pledge and other news via our social channels @RegentStreetW1 and @stjameslondon or sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page