SO YOU turn off the tap while you brush your teeth and take short showers. Now consider this: the British waste more water by throwing away food than they use at home every day. The problem is unlikely to be restricted to the UK.
According to by the and , people in the UK each waste on average 243 litres a day in the food they throw away 鈥� over one and a half times what they use in their homes.
The report combined data on the amount of food wasted in the UK and the water used to produce each food, known as 鈥渧irtual water鈥�, to calculate that 6 per cent of the country鈥檚 total water use is wasted as food thrown in the bin.
Advertisement
鈥淔ood is the number one cause of water use,鈥� says of the University of Texas at Austin, who has shown that US food waste contains more energy than is extracted every year from the nation鈥檚 oil and gas reserves. Some wastage stems from fear that food may have gone off, he says, but the real issue is cultural. Food wastage is typical of countries that have an abundance of food. Webber cites large portion sizes in the US and 鈥渁ll you can eat鈥� buffets, saying food should be treated as 鈥減recious鈥�.
