London Mayor Boris Johnson has kicked off a £1m scheme aiming to help businesses in the capital cut down on food waste.
Called FoodSave, the project is backed by the Greater London Authority, the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) and the European Regional Development Fund, and will work hand-in-hand with over 240 small and medium sized businesses across the City.
Foodsave was officially launched earlier this week and will engage with the businesses in it’s remit for around 18 months.
Costing £1m, the scheme aims to provide a £360,000 total saving for all the businesses involved per year, and get more businesses on board with the same standard of food recycling that is currently being pushed out to so many households in London.
Furthermore, the environmental impact is expected to be considerable, with potential for around 1,000 tonnes of food waste to be diverted from landfill.
Matthew Pencharz, the Mayor’s senior adviser on environment said: “FoodSave is a brilliant initiative that can help businesses reduce their food waste disposal costs and become more efficient. I encourage as many businesses as possible to get involved and both save money and help the environment.”
The European Regional Development Fund is providing £500,000 for the project, while the Mayor of London has committed £370,000 and the remaining £130,000 is coming from LWARB.
Restaurants, hotels, pubs, etc. will get a minimum of 12 hours support from the Sustainable Restaurants Association, identifying and taking advantage of opportunities to cut down on food waste as well as handling proper food recycling.
Otherwise, Sustain will offer practical advice on waste management to food retailers, caterers and more.
The launch of the scheme comes just a few weeks after the publication of the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP)’s food waste report estimates that around four million tonnes of food waste a year comes from comes from food service, restaurants and manufacturing.
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