The world is at a tipping point when it comes to waste. With a mushrooming world population, and a billion extra mouths to feed by 2025, we can't go on consuming, producing and wasting food in the same way. We need bold new solutions if it’s are to overcome this issue, says Nesta the UK’s innovation foundation.

Nesta, together with Cabinet Office, called for new ideas that would help reduce waste. Over 18 months, the Waste Reduction challenge prize developed 25 concepts – proposed from community groups to established charities – and piloted six in regions across the UK.

The piloted ideas included a ’rubbish diet’ to slim people’s bins,  a network that redirects supermarkets’ leftover stock to charities and a mobile kitchen that provide meals made from local surplus to people in need.

Awarded a prize of £50,000 for demonstrating the biggest effect in reducing waste, London-based Gleaning Network has devised an innovative solution to the problem of farm food wastage. During the pilot they diverted 36.74 tonnes of fruit and vegetables that would have been wasted to charities, providing over 183, 000 meals to beneficiaries.

In the future Gleaning Network expects to redirect more than 80,000 kg of produce per year to charities per year and more as the project develops.

Tris Dyson, director of Nesta’s Centre for Challenge Prizes, said: “The UK is only at the tip of the landfill when it comes to waste; we need to give some serious thought to this problem. The piloted initiatives have demonstrated that communities are keen to tackle the issue of waste.  These initiatives are already making a real difference to the community, we need to see more ideas like these rolled out across the UK”

Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd said: “This challenge demonstrates just how much can be achieved when communities come together to tackle a big issue like this.  We’ve seen some truly outstanding innovation from all of the finalists, and I look forward to following the progress of the winning scheme as the project develops.”

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Notes to editors

WRAP recently reported that six meals a week are thrown away by Britons

• The Giving Challenge Prizes – Waste Reduction and Ageing Well – were set to encourage community innovation in the giving of time, skills and resources for social good. The challenges were run by Nesta’s Centre for Challenge Prizes and funded by the Cabinet Office and saw one idea from each of the challenges awarded £50,000.

• The Waste Reduction challenge prize tasked organisations and groups to develop ideas to reduce waste, by providing new opportunities for communities to come together to give time, skills and resources
• For each challenge, 25 entries were shortlisted and given the support and opportunity to develop a detailed plan for their idea. Six concepts, with the potential for sustainability and scale, then received up to £10,000 and professional advice to set up and test their projects. The winner would be the one that best met the challenge during the test period.