Stay loose and help save the planet

A national campaign to help reduce food bills and save the environment has won the backing of waste chiefs in Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham.

The Biffa BDR Waste Partnership - serving 345,000 households across the area - is supporting Food Waste Action Week which is urging people to buy loose fruit and veg to save food from the bin.

With food waste costing on average £1,000 for a household of four every year, Food Waste Action Week running from 17 – 23 March 2025 will highlight the benefits of choosing to buy loose.

An estimated 4.5 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away each year by UK households.  Campaigners say household food waste could be reduced by removing the packaging on uncut fresh fruit and veg. This means shoppers can buy exactly what they need. It would also eliminate a significant amount of unnecessary packaging.

Biffa’s waste treatment facility at Manvers processes around a quarter of a million tonnes of leftover waste a year from 345,000 homes across Barnsley, Doncaster, and Rotherham. The waste charity WRAP which runs Food Waste Action Week, recently called for a packaging ban on 21 fruit and veg items such as apples, bananas and carrots. This recommendation has been created in consultation with industry stakeholders from across the supply chain. Selling these 21 items loose has the potential to save in the region of 100,000 tonnes of edible fruit and vegetables from being wasted annually in people's homes as well as saving 13,000 tonnes of plastic film.

Mark Houlbrook, Chair of the Joint Waste Board in South Yorkshire, said: “We are proud to be supporting Food Waste Action Week again this year. The campaign highlights how we can best save precious resources by buying only what we need.

“Not only is this good for family budgets but also good for the environment by reducing the amount of food and plastic packaging being sent to waste.”

Jackie Bailey, Senior Campaign Manager Love Food Hate Waste, said: “We know buying loose fruit and veg has the potential to significantly cut the amount of food ending up in the bin – now is the time for retailers and shoppers to make that a reality. Increasing loose fruit and veg offerings in store will not only reduce hard to recycle plastics, it will also enable shoppers to buy closer to their needs, slashing waste and stopping tens of thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions.”

Enquiries:

Duncan.gibbons@biffa.co.uk 

About Biffa:  

With over 100 years of expertise, Biffa is an established leader of sustainable waste management in the UK.   

Our purpose is to change the way people think about waste and our team of more than 10,000 key workers provide unrivalled end-to-end waste and recycling solutions for thousands of businesses and millions of households each day.  

Underpinned by our low carbon collection network, we’re at the forefront of enabling the UK circular economy by continuing to build our plastic recycling capacity, investing in energy recovery and growing the amount of surplus produce we redistribute through Company Shop.  

Since 2002 we’ve cut our carbon emissions by 70% and aim to be net zero by 2050. Our long-standing Biffa Award programme and our proud partnership with WasteAid also contribute to major environmental benefits for the UK and beyond.

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