Love Food Hate Waste set for Vancouver

Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW), a campaigning body run by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) that aims to reduce food waste, is to roll out its first international waste minimisation programme in Vancouver, Canada, it has been announced.

Metro Vancouver – a political body and corporate entity that delivers regional services, sets policy and acts as a political forum under the direction of 24 local authorities – is currently working with LFHW to deliver a three-year, web-based programme that will educate its residents on the impact of food waste, and encourage them to use their local authorities’ food waste collection services (where available).

It comes after the body found that 30 per cent of food found in householder residual waste bins could have been used.

David Hocking, Division Manager for Corporate Communications in the External Relations department of Metro Vancouver advised the Zero Waste Committee to develop a LFHW Campaign following the ‘success’ of the UK campaign, which reportedly helped reduce food waste by 21 per cent between 2007 and 2012.

As such, LFHW will help develop a ‘comprehensive, regional Metro Vancouver Love Food Hate Waste campaign working closely with and engaging member municipalities’.

WRAP will work with Metro Vancouver to:

• replicate its approach in developing key campaign elements (menu planning with integrated shopping lists, food storage and product labelling);
• share direct benefits realised by UK food retailers to help Metro Vancouver recruit Canadian retail partners for point-of-sale education and outreach;
• define appropriate baseline and future reporting requirements and metrics;
• identify achievable food waste reduction targets for the campaign;
• develop a ‘comprehensive’ baseline report with consideration for future reporting requirements; and
• design region-specific collateral materials in support of the campaign

A soft launch was rolled out last week, and a full-scale launch is scheduled for 2015.

It is hoped that the campaign will help Metro Vancouver achieve its objectives of banning organic waste from landfill next year and achieve its Zero Waste Challenge target of diverting 70 per cent of waste from landfill.

Food waste is a ‘common challenge’

Speaking of the new programme, Emma Marsh, Head of Love Food Hate Waste, said: “I’m thrilled to see Love Food Hate Waste launch in Vancouver. Our work has helped consumers and businesses take significant strides to prevent and reduce their food waste in the UK, so it’s great to have the opportunity to share our learnings with Vancouver and support the campaign’s development. We hope that by assembling guidance and best practice from our own experiences, and from others we work with around the world, it will encourage more action to tackle this crucial global issue.”

Writing in her blog, Chief Executive Officer of WRAP Dr Liz Goodwin said: ‘It’s a proud moment for all the team on our Love Food Hate Waste campaign that their expertise and learnings will now be delivering benefits around the world as well as giving us a new stream [of] income. 

‘What it also highlights is that whether in Vancouver or London, one thing remains the same. There is a common challenge; we’re all consumers of food, so we need to consider the waste impacts this has on a wider scale.’

She added that in the next 15 years, it’s expected that 50 per cent more food will need to be produced than is currently to meet demand.

She concluded: ‘It’s clear something has to change. It’s clear that is hardly sustainable. 

‘This can’t just be the responsibility of just a single individual, community, organisation, sector or government. We need a collaborative effort, using a multifaceted approach. We need inter-related activities being done by different parties... Only if we work together, can we hope to achieve our goals.’

Read Liz Goodwin’s full blog post on the Metro Vancouver roll out, or find out more about how Vancouver manages its waste in Resource 77.