A large number of local authorities and some retailers are understood to have registered with the campaign team at WRAP already and some local authorities are to launch a food waste campaign simultaneously with WRAP. Material to be made available will include copies of advertisements, logo's, PR messages, brand guidelines and reports.
WRAP itself is not releasing information about the campaign ahead of its launch. However, former chief executive Jennie Price, said earlier this year that the campaign would be an important part of WRAP's work in 2007. And, this week, the importance of tackling food waste was highlighted at the Environmental Services Association conference on anaerobic digestion.
WRAP has carried out several research projects ahead of the campaign and also trialled food waste promotions to focus groups. This work has been steered in part at different age groups and family structures.
Conference
The campaign launch will be reinforced with a Food, Consumers and Resource Efficiency conference in London on November 6. WRAP is co-ordinating this in partnership with the Resource Recovery Forum, the Resource Efficiency Knowledge Transfer Network, the Food Processing Knowledge Transfer Network and consultants Brook Lyndhurst.
The extent of the involvement of supermarkets with the food waste campaign has not yet been disclosed. However, supermarkets are understood to have had discussions over the issue with WRAP's retail team – in recent months the sector and WRAP have started to work very closely together and the supermarkets are said to feel quite “comfortable” in their relationship with the organisation.
Supermarkets
Some of the major chains, such as ASDA and Sainsburys, told letsrecycle.com today that they already had their own work underway to help cut food waste at the consumer end of the chain.
A spokeswoman for ASDA said that a trial in its Southport store of providing fruit and vegetables loose was proving successful. She said: “We have changed the store so that people can buy just what they want. So if an 80-year-old, for example, wants to buy one peach, one pear and one banana, they can do.”
And, she had added that ASDA is to roll out the trial to at least five other stores to assess the impact of the scheme on different parts of the country and different age groups. The company, she said, had found from other research work that younger people “often want their vegetables in a pack and have the view that means it has not been touched by anyone else.”
Sainsbury's said it is actively addressing how it can further reduce its own waste, as well as encouraging customers to reduce their own food waste at home. On the domestic front, the programme includes “Inspiring customers to use food and avoid waste”. The supermarket is doing this partly through giving out “tip cards – simple recipes using few and specific ingredients – which helps to avoid waste.”
Sainsburys is also looking at smaller sizes for customers such as grapes in a tub, or salmon in bulk that is also compartmentalised so food can be frozen in sections, and used at a later date. And, the company says it sells 70% of fruit and vegetables loosely, “so customers can take exactly what they need”.
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