Winners of Waste Reduction challenge prize announced
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