Great Yarmouth Borough Council are supporting, the new ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ campaign, launched by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)  to help reduce the amount of good food that is being thrown away by households across the Borough.

People currently throwaway a thirdof the food they buy and what’s more, whilst some of this is teabags and fish bones, most is perfectly good food that could have been eaten – if only we had used it in time or not made too much. That’s why WRAP has launched this important campaign.

In the UK we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year. Most of this ends up in landfill sites, which contributes to climate change because it emits methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas. Not only are the environmental implications huge but the financial ones are too - we buy, and then waste, around £8 billion on food that could have been eaten.

“Love Food Hate Waste” is a campaign aimed at raising awareness of the food waste problem in the UK and providing us all with helpful and practical hints and tips on how to enjoy the food we buy, and cut down on the amount of good food thrown away. Here are some ideas we thought we’d share:

• When cooking for a family - take a few minutes to measure food out - perhaps into a favourite cup - so you get the right portion per person.

• Meals made from leftovers can be delicious and timesaving– whether its food from the night before or food left in the fridge or cupboard.  Do your own ‘Ready Steady Cook’ and see what meals you can make.

• Check what’s in your cupboard or freezer – not forgetting the back of your fridge – before you shop for more.

• Make good use of the fridge and freezer to keep food better - for example, most ripe fruit can be kept in the fridge to make it last longer.

And the answer for the peelings and cores - home composting is a great way to prevent unavoidable food waste such as peelings, cores and teabags ending up in landfill and can do wonders for the garden

Although 99% of pumpkins sold in the UK this Halloween will be used to make lanterns, hundreds of thousands of these will be placed in refuse bins and end up in landfill.

This autumn, don’t just throw away the flesh from your pumpkin – you can make a delicious soup with it, and when Halloween’s over, make sure your lantern is broken up and goes on your compost heap.  The Recycle now website has a great recipe for pumpkin soup.  Visit www.recyclenow.com for more details.

How to compost your pumpkin

• The seeds and pulp can go straight in the compost bin (if you don’t want to try making soup!)

• Once Halloween is over, break up the pumpkin shell and add it to the compost

• Remember your compost needs a balance of ‘brown’ such as leaves and shredded paper) and ‘green’ ingredients (including kitchen scraps – like pumpkin!) and

• In the spring, you can even use the compost to grow your own pumpkins!

Composters are currently available at greatly reduced rates starting at £8. View our Composting section for further information or to order.

If you have any ideas or recipes on making the most of food. Log on to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com to share them with others.