Prizes on offer to Cambridgeshire residents in fight to cut food waste

Councils across Cambridgeshire have teamed up to offer prizes to residents who pledge to cut the amount of food they throw away.

The RECAP (Recycling in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough) partnership has launched a campaign asking people to adopt simple habits to help save food from being thrown away.

Every month until the end of the year, residents can sign up to a new pledge – for example, to only buy what they will eat and receive weekly support and tips such as, writing a shopping list.

For each monthly pledge, there will be a prize draw for someone to win £60 in vouchers to spend on their food shop. This is the amount, on average, that a household wastes each month on food that doesn’t get eaten.

People will receive weekly emails full of tips and be encouraged to fulfil the pledge, they will also be invited to join an exclusive Facebook group so they can share their experiences with others.

Other special guests are joining the fight against food waste, including local celebrity chef Tristan Welch, who hosted a culinary clinic on Instagram giving tailored recipe advice to help people use what was in their fridge.

There is also a food waste app available called Kitche, to help residents save money. The app helps to track people’s food inventory, remind them about expiry dates, and has thousands of recipes based on the food people already have. The app also allows people to track the emissions you have prevented and records the money saved.

In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, over a third of the waste put into bins is food - and two thirds could have been eaten if it had been used in time.

This campaign will support residents to make simple changes to their shopping, cooking and eating habits that will help prevent this forgotten food from going to waste.

People can put the vouchers towards their food shop – because throwing food away is throwing money away. Everyone is encouraged to make the pledge today and get friends and family to join in so we can all tackle food waste together.

Take the pledge now at http://www.recap.co.uk/pledge-to-fight-food-waste and find out more about the Kitche app at