Plaid Cymru MEP and Party President, Jill Evans, was at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth last Friday to take part in the “This is Rubbish” tour, an initiative to raise awareness about food waste generated by the food industry and lobby government for change. She was chairing a session of experts looking at the scale of the problem and discussing proposed solutions. In Wales, it’s estimated that around 410,000 tonnes of food is thrown away every year at an average cost of £420 per household.

Ms Evans said,

"The food waste problem is recognised by government, but there isn't an effective strategy in place to deal with it. Wasting food on the scale we do has ethical, economic, nutritional, environmental and health implications. It is totally unacceptable that good healthy food is just thrown away. In Wales alone over 400,000 tonnes of food a year becomes waste.

"I am working on this issue in the European Parliament and I believe we need laws which set binding targets on companies and local councils to reduce this waste. Voluntary agreements haven't worked. The Welsh Government has emphasised the importance of locally sourced food as well as the need for more education and awareness about food waste, but further action is needed.

"Most local authorities have made great progress to tackle the problem, including the introduction of kerbside food waste collection and recycling. For example, Plaid led Gwynedd council is developing an anaerobic digester to treat food waste and turn it into electricity which can feed into the national grid.

"There are many food banks in Wales where companies work with community groups to redistribute surplus food, but the main aim is to cut the waste in the first place. It is crazy that perfectly good fresh food is rejected because it isn't the right shape or because it is a couple of days past a "sell by" guideline.

"All of us have a role to play in reducing the amount of food we throw away unnecessarily and in making sure that food waste gets recycled rather than being sent to landfill. But 60% of food waste is caused by inefficiencies within the food supply and we need legislation to deal with this.”

Ends.