Stop supermarkets throwing away edible food
The UK throws away 15 million tonnes of food and drink every year and half of this food and drink could have been consumed.
If we all stop wasting edible food, the environmental benefit would be the equivalent of taking one in four cars off the road. A large factor in this wastage is that supermarkets throw away huge volumes of perfectly good quality edible food just because it is approaching its best-before date.
This is while increasing numbers of families in the UK cannot afford to buy food and are forced to go to food banks to avoid starvation - as a result of low wages and/or benefit sanctions and cuts.
We call on the Government to introduce legislation to ban supermarkets from throwing away food approaching its best-before dates and instead make it available to charities and food banks
Such legislation has been successfully introduced in France and would have significant social and environmental benefits.
Please sign now to email your MP to ask them to add their name to Diane Abbott's Early Day Motion 66: Supermarket Disposal of Edible Food, and to ask them how they plan to use their position as MP to reduce food waste.
Dear [MP],
Please add your name to Dianne Abbott's Early Day Motion 66, Supermarket Disposal of Edible Food, the text of which reads:
That this House notes that the UK throws away 15 million tonnes of food and drink every year and that half of this food and drink could have been consumed; further notes that if people stop wasting edible food, the environmental benefit would be the equivalent of taking one in four cars off the road; therefore calls on the Government to introduce legislation to ban supermarkets from throwing away food approaching its best-before dates and instead make it available to charities and food banks; and finally notes that such legislation has been successfully introduced in France and would have significant social and environmental benefits.
In addition to this, please let me know how you plan to reduce food waste in your constituency and Nationally in your time in office.
