Archive

A review of how different promotional mechanics are used by the UK grocery sector, and a survey to investigate the link between promotions and food waste in the UK.

There has been a very significant reduction in the amount of food waste2 generated by households in the UK between 2006/7 and 2010/11, of around 1.1 million tonnes (from 8.3 million tonnes to 7.2 million tonnes)3. Avoidable food waste has reduced by 950,000 tonnes, from 5.3 to 4.4 million tonnes, which will have delivered huge benefits to the environment, in terms of reductions in CO2e emissions, water usage and the amount of material sent to landfill. Around £2.5 billion less food is now thrown away each year compared to 2006/7. Detailed compositional analysis has not yet been undertaken to understand which types of food may have decreased the most, or how food waste generation by different types of household might have changed over this period.

Consumer research designed to investigate consumers' attitudes, motivations and behaviour around buying, storing, using and throwing away bread and bakery items. Insights from this research, and from assessing changes to the sensory properties of bread over time, have been used to develop recommendations to help consumers reduce bread and bakery waste.

View the 2025 updated Collections Blueprint

Overview

The Collections Blueprint describes the Welsh Government’s recommended service profile for the collection of household waste. Published in 2011 as part of the Municipal Sector Plan, it provides a system that is now achieving high rates of high-quality recycling, significant cost savings and improved sustainable development outcomes.

This report provides information on collecting food waste from small businesses and schools. It highlights a series of key issues which local authorities should consider when thinking about rolling out food waste collections to businesses and schools.

An investigation of consumer attitudes and behaviour in respect of food storage and packaging.

A report on the findings of a research project to better understand the nature and types of food waste in schools; the reasons why food is wasted in schools and the impact of interventions developed to help schools to reduce this waste.

An extensive study of consumer refrigerated food practices in the home and experimental measurements of refrigerated food temperatures during their transit from the retail store to the domestic fridge.

A quantitative study into consumer attitudes, understanding and behaviour with regards to home-freezing food, store-bought frozen food and use of the freezer in general.

An investigation into the scope to reduce the amount and weight of packaging used to pack whole, fresh chicken and to extend the product shelf life helping to reduce household food waste.
 

Monitoring and evaluating scheme performance is something that all local authorities should be doing as a matter of routine. Not only does it enable you to assess whether schemes are performing as expected, it also helps diagnose problems, design new approaches and ultimately improve efficiency and effectiveness.
 

This revised document gives you practical advice on how to go about monitoring the performance of your schemes.