The UK has a problem with household food waste. We don’t use what we buy before it spoils, we buy food that we don’t need, and we throw perfectly good food away. To help tackle this national challenge, we worked with WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) to develop the ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ campaign strategy. We analysed people’s motivations and barriers around food waste, and focused our approach on the personal financial benefits, as well as the wider environmental dividends that result from reducing food waste.
To engage and inspire citizens to reduce their household food waste, we developed the emotive Love Food, Hate Waste brand and campaign materials, which reinforce the benefits of action and provide simple tips and guidance for getting more out of the food we do buy.
Subsequent work to refresh the citizen food waste strategy has involved engagement with a range of stakeholders, including signatories to the Courtauld Commitment 2025.
Between 2007 and 2018, Love Food, Hate Waste helped deliver a remarkable 26% decrease in the amount of food wasted by UK households (some 4.5 million tonnes). That amounts to saving nearly £5 billion, and reducing national CO2e emissions by 5.3 million tonnes – the same carbon savings as taking 2.4 million cars off our roads for a year.