Did you know...?
A collection of compelling incentives to become a freegan!
- UK households discard 4.1 million tonnes of avoidable food waste, worth £10.2 billion, every year. [1]
- Much of the food that we throw away is unopened. 1,600 million apples, 1,030 million tomatoes, 2,570 million bread slices, 484 million unopened yoghurt tubs are discarded anually by households in the UK. [1]
- Not only are healthy foods thrown away, but 259 million full packs of chocolates and sweets, 30 million untouched Gateaux are discarded anually by UK households. [1]
- Well might we say 'Let them eat cake', while bread accounts for 505,000 tonnes of avoidable household food waste in the UK, cakes and puddings also puts in a reasonable showing, at 86,000 tonnes per year. [1]
- From 2005-2008 world food prices rose by 75%. Wheat prices have doubled, while maize, soya and oilseeds are at record highs. [2]
- India is the world's second biggest wheat producer but bought 5.5m tonnes in 2006, and 1.8m tonnes in 2007, driving up world prices. It has banned the export of all forms of rice other than luxury basmati. [2]
- In 2007-2008, farmers in Kenya's Rift Valley planted a third less of the land than in 2006-2007, because fertiliser has more than doubled in price. [3]
- Price rises of basic staples in 2007-2008: Corn 31%, Rice 74%, Soya 87%, Wheat 130%. [4]
- 1,000-2,000 litres of water are required to produce 1kg of wheat, but 10,000-13,000 litres of water are required to produce 1kg of beef. [4]
- The global demand for biological resources now exceeds the planet's capacity to renew them by 20%. [5]
- The UK disposes of more than 27m tonnes of waste to landfill each year - 7m more than any other European country. [6]
- An area the size of Warwick - 109 sq miles - is now landfill and landfill space could run out in 2016. [6]
- Household rubbish is only a 1/10th of all the waste created in the UK. Most waste is produced by businesses shops, offices, street-markets, construction or demolition firms, farmers, industry, manufacturers or other businesses. [7]
- Councils are required to ensure local household waste is recycled, however there are no similar requirements for business waste. [7]
- 143,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions would be stopped for every 1% increase in recycling. [8]
- Scientists say the current extinction rate is now up to 10,000 times faster than what has historically been recorded as normal [9]
- Between 1960 and 2000, the human population of the world has doubled. Yet during the same period, the animal populations have declined by 30 per cent. [9]
- As long ago as 1993, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson estimated that Earth is currently losing something on the order of 30,000 species per year — which breaks down to the even more daunting statistic of some three species per hour. [10]
- It has been predicted that our present course will lead to the
extinction of half of all plant and animal species by the year 2100. [11]
1) Ventour, L 2008, 'The food we waste', WRAP
2) Borger, J 2008, 'Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits', The Guardian
3) Buchanan, E 2008, 'Assessing the global food crisis', BBC News
4) 2008, 'The cost of food: Facts and figures', BBC News
5) Adam, D 2006, 'UN warns of worst mass extinctions for 65m years', The Guardian
6) 2007, 'Dustbin UK tops landfill table', BBC News
7) 2007, 'Trade waste - position statement', National Environment Officers Network
9) 2008, 'An epidemic of extinctions: Decimation of life on earth', The Independent
10) Elderidge, N 2001, 'The Sixth Extinction', ActionBioscience