The experts reckon that around £27 million pounds worth of food is wasted in Reading every year.
Some scary facts: for very tonne of food waste is the equivalent of 4.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere each year. Overall, food waste is responsible for 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted each year.
Today we read that the Labour Lead Member for Environment, Paul Gittings, is "pretty shocked" by these figures. Hard to know what to make of that response when many individuals and environmental pressure groups were aware of this issue long before the publication of the WRAP's damning report in May. Let's hope he and members of his group are shocked out of paralysis into action.
The Lib Dems have been campaigning to get Labour-run Reading Borough Council to do something to reduce this alarming figure and to stop sending food waste to build up in landfill for some time.
It's not rocket science: Lib-Dem controlled Islington Borough Council has been offering kitchen food waste collection for a few years now
Gordon Brown even sought to highlight the problem before settling down to a banquet at the G8 Summit earlier this week, although I got the feeling that was less about the environment than economics.
Are we to expect some practical action by the Labour leaders of our local authority to deal with this growing problem? It seems not and once again local residents are exhorted to take action in the absence of anything beyond warm words from Labour.
We will continue to challenge Labour in Reading to do more to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. Email us your thoughts and sign our petition here.
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