Last year, Tesco, the largest grocer in the UK and third largest retailer in the world, reported that its stores produced almost 30,000 tonnes of food waste in the first half of 2013. A breakdown of their most wasted food is summarized below:
According to Tesco, a whopping 68% of their bagged salads go to waste. Nearly half of their baked goods and apples are never consumed. That’s a lot of food (and money) being poured down the drain.
Tesco has taken steps to reduce their environmental footprint, citing reducing food waste as one of their “Three Big Ambitions”. Their other two goals are improving health and creating opportunities.
Tesco has identified that food waste occurs mainly in agriculture and their supply chain, and from customers. Their plans to reduce food waste target both of these streams. For instance, Tesco no longer offers multi-buy promotions on their salads and sells them in re-sealable bags. The company is working with banana suppliers to make the fruit last longer during transportation and revamping their ordering process to avoid overstocking. Any food waste they do produce is converted into energy or donated to food distribution charities.
To compare, Sainsbury’s, the second largest grocer in the UK, achieved its goal of “zero waste to landfill” last year. The food waste they produced was processed for animal feed, converted into energy, or distributed to charities.
While reducing the amount of waste going into landfills is great, Sainsbury’s does not seem to have made an effort to reduce the amount of waste they are producing in the first place. It’s like recycling plastic water bottles vs. switching to reusable bottles. I feel like Sainsbury’s is only addressing one side of the food waste issue, diverting waste from the landfills, whereas Tesco has targeted both sides, reducing the amount of waste and diverting what’s left.
As the 3rd largest retailer in the world, I think Tesco has a responsibility to tackle problems like these. Hopefully, it will push other grocers to take notice as well. It seems grocers in the UK are already doing so. The four largest UK grocers, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, and Morrisons, plus Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, and the Co-op have agreed to release information on the amount of food waste they produce beginning in 2015.
It will be interesting to see what next steps these companies take, and if other grocers outside of the UK will follow suit, if they haven’t already.