‘Are you saving that, Clarke?’ they ask, sniggering.
‘Are you saving that, Clarke?’ they ask, sniggering. ‘Is there enough room in the fridge, what with all the other leftovers?’ Then they giggle, and turn on EastEnders. They mock me but I am resilient, and full of resolve. I have no time for soaps and mindless television because I am a food waste-buster: one of a growing group who can’t bear the amount of food people throw away. I have no time for TV — I have cupboards to organise, soups and stocks to concoct, chutneys to make, tomatoes to bottle and jams to set.
There are many of us out there, a hidden army. Some may think us obsessive, but I’m convinced we are simply right: deep in our collective bones we all know that our grandparents were correct — it’s just plain wrong to throw away good food.
Well, we waste-busters are hitting the big time this week, coming out of the closet. As The Spectator goes to press, the Great British Waste Menu is airing on BBC1. The Great British Menu judges, joined by Jay Rayner, will decide which of four chefs can create the best banquet for 60 VIPs using unwanted food from every link in the food chain — supermarkets, homes, markets and farms. And though celebrity chefs are taking on the challenge, me and my gang will recognise our lifestyle in this slick televisual event.
If you saw the programme (on Wednesday night) it might well have turned you into a waste-buster too. The facts and statistics are amazing. Lovefoodhatewaste.com (a new website) says that an estimated 8.3 million tonnes of household food waste is produced each year in the UK, and it is rising. Kate Colquhoun, in her book The Thrifty Cookbook (my new bible), says that constitutes a third of the food we buy, and a quarter of it is still in its original packaging. The cost is estimated at £10 billion a year, more than the UK’s foreign aid budget.
And then there’s the environmental toll: food rotting in landfill sites can seep as a poisonous black sludge into our waterways, and it creates the greenhouse gas methane. Even if global warming leaves you cold, methane isn’t very nice. It is much more toxic than carbon dioxide, and its reduction would achieve far more than controlling food packaging or eliminating plastic bags.
The sustainability organisation WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), which is sponsoring Lovefoodhatewaste.com, aims to reduce consumer food waste by 250,000 tonnes by March 2011 — a mere 3 per cent, yet still hugely ambitious. WRAP notes that good intentions are often hampered by a lack of planning and confidence, poor food knowledge and confusion over food date labels: information and encouragement are vital factors in changing habits.
So will the BBC persuade others to join the waste-busters? It’s a tough call. Fast foods, bulk-buying and bulk-binning are part of our busy lifestyles now. Food waste-busting takes time and effort. But it’s fun too: this evening I plan to experiment with garlic pickle and windfall apple jelly. If parents were keen, I can imagine kids thinking it a hoot to become imaginative with leftovers, to juice up unlikely fruits or make pizza from odds and ends.
On Wednesday evening I shall abandon my kitchen (and vegetable patch — it goes with the territory) in favour of the TV for once. I’ll try my hardest not to feel smug, but instead to cross my fingers that The Great British Waste Menu is just the start of a new national movement.