This is disgusting

[dingit]

Yes it was on social media, but I don't doubt it at all

A quote from a refuse collector:
“In the past 2 weeks, we have seen a 30% increase in Food Waste collected from households, the additional weight is mainly fresh food that has gone out of date and was never even touched, some still in wrappers. Refuse and Recycling tonnages are on a par with post Christmas collections.
That's the shameful and selfish truth of panic buying.”

I knew this would happen. And I expect some of that would still have been usable or able to be frozen.
Yes, you're right, it is disgusting. If everyone just took what they needed and left the rest for other people there would be plenty to go round

Surely there hasn't been time since panic buying started for that food to then go off, get binned, then get collected and the results of this be noticed?

I've no doubt there will be additional household waste but a lot of that will simply be because more people are spending more time in the home.

I do think more people are spending more time at home but it is safe if it is really a consequence of panic buying. I did a big clear out of my fridge but that was old jars and bottles. We are eating every last scrap at the moment.

*sad not safe

This is surely just bullshit.
My food waste bag has been bulging.
There’s no waste.
I’ve been cooking from scratch at home and the waste is peelings etc. Usually we may eat in cafes for lunch , the kids would eat at school. But no... now it’s every single meal for a big family cooked by yours truly. In order to economise and stay healthy , the meals have been veg rich... loads of potatoes, bananas, whole chickens, etc etc I’ve chopped billions of onions ? Deseeeded a ridiculous amount of butternut squash, ground loads of coffee beans (usually I’d have coffee out with friends). The food waste bag is heavy but actually the packaging/ general waste bag has hardly been used due to my kitchen efforts!

There has been time. A lot of fresh food goes off in less than a week

This fucks me off no end, I'm not even sorry about swearing.

This is surely just bullshit
Why? They do look at the waste you know. They know the difference between peelings and scraps, and produce that hasn't been used. He even mentioned that some of it was still in wrappers.

If it's still in wrappers, why's it in the food waste bin? Why does a refuse collector have access to the data? Panic buying only just hit in the last couple of weeks, and has focussed almost entirely on non-perishables, so seeing a 30% increase in the food waste in the same 2 weeks, driven by out of date food (and not by people cooking more at home) sounds like bs to me too.

Theres enough for us all to be worried and upset about right now without looking for more reasons to be angry at one another.

Not from this house, other than a few veg peelings, actually less than usual.

But if people realise they aren't going to use it could they take it to a food bank.
Are people really so stupid they throw it away past the date even though it is OK to use, just look at it and smell it. most food is OK past the use by date

There a few things wrong with this story

As others have said our food waste had ginger up as I'm making more from scratch and thus loads more cores/peelings. Plus as three of us are ill we are not eating as much and when we are well I do keep leftovers from plates to be eaten later at the moment I am not so there are plate scrapings too

^gone up

While I wouldn't necessarily say bullshit, I have a similar situation to therollocking. I've ordered fresh fruit and veg from a local farm shop and have been doing a lot more veg-heavy cooking from scratch. As a result my food waste has a lot more scraps in than usual.
Surely everyone has panic-bought everything now and we can settle down a bit?

Surely there hasn't been time since panic buying started for that food to then go off, get binned, then get collected and the results of this be noticed?

This. It's someone try to create drama.

I’ve seen this on my local fb page. I call bs, especially as they spent a huge amount of money in our county stickering bins about food waste, they had 6,500 requests for brown bins so thousands more people have started recycling food waste than a few weeks ago. Also people at home more now will obviously have more food waste as teabags, peelings etc as a result from not being out and about.

The giveaway is things still in wrappers as you don’t put wrappers in food waste bins. #fakenews

The obesity virus 19.

The post doesn't say it was collected from Food Waste bins, it says ' 30% increase in Food Waste collected from households' which is probably normal household waste bins.

Our bin operatives look inside the bins before they put them on the truck, they have been known to remove things and leave them in the bin when they are done. They have also been seen sorting through the bins for scrap and things to sell so very likely have been looking at what is in the general waste.

Oh I believe this 100% and it is infuriating.

I agree with you rollickingrogue, we've filled the caddy with food waste twice this week - coffee grounds, teabags, cauliflower leaves and core, avocado shells and stones, onion peelings, pepper seeds and cores etc etc.

Usually we would only fill it once because we'd be eating half our meals out (kids and DH eat lunch at school, I buy lunch at work) and TBH probably about a third of our dinners were usually out as well, either round at a friends' for a dinner party or a takeaway.

Now we're making 21 meals a week at home from scratch, plus morning and afternoon tea/coffee breaks, there is a LOT more going in that food waste bin. But it's actually waste, not panic bought food that's gone off.

Yes food waste for many is still a green wheelie.

I have no doubt that is factual. The shelves have been bare long enough. I noticed yesterday milk is over flowing in store. Why? Because everyone panic bought far more than they probably needed or could easily use and now don't need any.

There is a point at which saturation of toilet paper, kitchen roll, pasta etc. occurs and stock levels should return to usual as much as it can depending on ongoing production.

I think this is probably true as 2 days ago my mum went to put some rubbish in her black waste bin and found that someone had cheekily put a large black bin bag inside it. When she looked inside it she found it full of food which hadn't been used and had just expired.

I nearly threw out one and a half bunches of bananas yesterday - they had clearly been frozen before arrival and turned brown.

Used half to make banana bread, half to make frozen banana for smoothies. No idea if you can refreeze frozen bananas and use safely again but I thought I would try a bit and see.

If we are all home more, it stands to reason we will make more waste