City of London

Londoners could save £330m a year and reduce tens of thousands of tonnes of food waste thanks to a new scheme being launched by Wrap as a test bed for action across Europe.

The TRiFOCAL London (Transforming City FOod hAbits for Life) initiative is aimed at reducing avoidable food waste in the capital and increasing awareness of more healthy and sustainable eating.

For the first time messages on how Londoners can reduce the amount of food they waste will be joined up with messages on how they can recycle the food waste that couldn’t be avoided, while also integrating messages about healthy sustainable eating.

Wrap plans to draw up a ‘food waste behavioural change resource bank’, which will be used to help other European cities replicate the achievements of London.

The scheme plans to prevent food waste by changing planning, shopping, storage and meal preparation behaviour. It will promote healthy and sustainable eating by changing purchasing and preparation practices and aim to recycle more unavoidable food waste.

Starting this month and running for three years, TRiFOCAL will engage with 33 London boroughs including householders, hospitality and foodservice businesses, local communities and schools. It will use a range of communications approaches, including events, advertising and direct engagement with residents.

Wrap said each year London households throw away an estimated 900,000 tonnes of food, of which 540,000 tonnes could have been eaten.

Wrap together with Resource London won €3.2m from the European Commission to launch the initiative.

“TRiFOCAL London represents a fantastic opportunity to look at the bigger picture around food: what we consume in London, and how we deal with the unavoidable food waste that’s generated,” said Resource London head of programme Antony Buchan.

“We want to help Londoners consume food more sustainably, save money and get a bit healthier by doing it, and then use their food recycling services more effectively. TRiFOCAL will build on the work we’ve done with Recycle for London and the Little Wins Love Food Hate Waste campaign. It delivers an exciting new chapter in making the capital greener.”