Adam Smith College Students' Association

Over £1 billion worth of food is wasted by consumers in Scotland each year. That's an average of £430 per household. Scottish households throw away 566,000 tonnes of food every year. Two thirds of all food waste could have been eaten. Half of the good food thrown away is untouched, with one in seven items still in their packaging. At least £18 million worth of food thrown out is still in date. If we stopped wasting all this food, we could prevent the equivalent of 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year in Scotland. This is the same as taking 1 in 4 cars off the road. £100 million of vegetable and salad waste is thrown away by Scottish households every year - that's the equivalent of 34 peppers for every person in Scotland! £70 million of fresh fruit waste is thrown away every year - that's the equivalent of an apple a day for every school child and teacher in Scotland for a year and a half! £90 million of bakery waste is thrown away by Scottish households every year - that's enough to make everyone in Scotland a sandwich a day for the next 6 months! £130 million of meat and fish waste is thrown away by Scottish households every year - that's enough to make everyone in Scotland a bacon buttie every Saturday for the next year! £93 million of dairy waste is thrown away by Scottish households every year - that's enough for everyone in Scotland to have milk on their cereal for the next 6 months!