Boris Johnson urges businesses to sign up to food waste pledge

London Mayor Boris Johnson has called on businesses to stamp out food waste in the capital and sign up to a pledge which will be launched today (November 18) in Trafalgar Square.


The pledge, which involves following a ‘food waste pyramid’ guide, is being unveiled to coincide with London’s ‘Feeding the 5,000’ event where hot meals made from wasted food will be given away to the public.

The guide for businesses outlines three key steps – to avoiding buying surplus food, to redistribute any unwanted food still fit for consumption to charities such as FareShare and FoodCycle, and to process the rest through either feeding livestock or through composting and anaerobic digestion.

Businesses such as Waitrose, the New Covent Garden Market, Cafe Spice, Wahaca, Innocent Drinks and Abel and Cole have already signed up to the pledge.

Boris Johnson said: “I urge businesses and Londoners to get on board to reduce waste and help to save millions for the capital’s economy. It is my vision to make London a zero waste city, which is why I am working closely with London’s boroughs with the aim of creating the capital’s very first zero waste ward, to show the rest of the city how it can be done.”

The Mayor has also set out plans for managing London’s waste, both the municipal and commercial streams, which aims for a 67% recycling rate across the capital, resulting in potential savings of £77m a year.

The key targets in the strategies include: to have no household waste going to landfill by 2025; to reduce the amount of household waste produced by 1% per year to 2031; for businesses to achieve 70% reuse, recycling and composting of C&I waste by 2020 and maintaining these levels to 2031.

Maxine Perella

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