If you are one of the HUNDEREDS of people who signed our letter to Dan Norris and you want to get more coppies to send to him yourself then try this page out; there is also a draft letter for your MP, building up support from MP’s  is well worth it.

As Feeding the 5000 approaches, This is Rubbish are in the midst of logistical and media preparation. Today was our first day in London. After breaking away from mid Wales we have every intention of clearly communicating why the acceptance of vast quantities of food waste generated at every stage of the supply chain should not be tolerated. The day was spent securing surplus yet completely edible fruit at a large wholesale market. At present there are large crates of bananas and apples waiting to be collected, both standing over 2 meters high; it is such industrial quantities of “waste” that is intolerable. This is Rubbish will be returning over the next three days to secure more crates of perfectly edible food that will otherwise go to waste. This food is deemed to be waste simply because it is slightly aesthetically imperfect, or more often because main buyers simply ordered too much of a certain product; such behaviour suggests that retailers, and therefore individuals seem to think that all food grows constantly and abundantly on trees. However, the food waste that was piled up in neat boxed columns today was not the guilty secret of a wasteful individual, but that of the food retail and catering supply chain. Over 50% of food waste is generated further up the supply chain than the supermarket, and seeing as The “Big Four” supermarkets had a combined share of 76.0% of the UK grocery market in November 2008, it is these supermarkets who dominate our food supply chain. These profiteering multinationals must be held accountable for the quantities of food waste that they are responsible for generating, and be regulated in a way where they will have to meet annual food waste reduction targets. Read on >

This is Rubbish is about one thing, reducing the scale of food waste in the UK.

While there are already campaigns working in this area we are a little different in that our focus : did you know less than 40% of food waste is produced by households? Most people are surprised by this, so much attention having been given to households alone. We are interested in engaging people not as consumers but as powerful political agents.

We plant to engage people in the issue of food waste by graphically exposing this waste to the public gaze. In Trafalgar Sq on December 16th we will be doing just this by serving up fruit smoothies from compost caddies, and letting people make their own by selecting delicious ‘waste’ food from our full size mock up skip!

Why not get your voice heard by writing a letter to your local MP and including a couple of our key messages. Or sending our standard letter by snail mail to Dan Norris the minister in charge of food waste policy at DEFRA. Read on >