by Rachel Westwood.
Food Waste Action Week 9-15 March 2026
This is Food Waste Action Week, giving us all an opportunity to look at whether we waste food and, if so, how can we best cut this waste.
Every year, UK households throw away 4.4 million tonnes of edible food - worth a staggering £17.5 billion. That's an average of £1,000 wasted per household of four every year.
60% of food waste happens in our homes - creating 16 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually. From bread and milk to fresh vegetables and leftovers, the food we buy with the best intentions often ends up in the bin. But it doesn't have to be this way.
This March, Food Waste Action Week returns with a rallying cry: Make Your Food Go Fuuuuuuuurther - for your pocket, for our planet. The focus is on simple approaches that we can all think about.https://www.wrap.ngo/resources/campaign-assets/food-waste-action-week-2026-toolkit-assets
- Monday: For your money - Stretch your budget further
- Tuesday: For your time - Save precious minutes
- Wednesday: For our planet - Reduce your environmental impact
- Thursday: For your health - Eat well, waste less
- Friday: For your headspace - Less waste, less stress
This includes simple actions like bringing a leftover lunch, spending five minutes planning meals before shopping, or composting food scraps like apple cores and tea bags. Small actions really do add up.
Solihull is now introducing food waste recycling, and with more homes across the UK now able to recycle food waste through their caddies under Simpler Recycling. Whilst reducing waste is the number one priority, the ability to recycle waste is a big help.
You can find more tips at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/team-blog/2018/01/12-ways-stop-wasting-food-drink/
Where are we Now? |
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We are proud to say that we have achieved the ‘Silver’ award level of the A’Rocha scheme. We intend to build on this and achieve Gold by recycling more, encouraging our church members and other churches to follow environmentally sensitive policies, and looking after our site (the churchyard) to promote ecological diversity and the wellbeing of the natural world. As part of this, we are thrilled to say that we were able to host the YCCN pilgrimage to the Glasgow Climate
Here’s our newly planted native (organic!) Yew hedge and our bee-friendly wildflower area which is showing good results!Summit!
| Recycling: |
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We have “recycling” boxes in the entrance to the Church and Hall where you can leave old mobile phones, stamps, spectacles and printer cartridges! These can often be sold to raise funds for the needy or passed to charities who can use them. We also can help with the recycling of many other things - contact us if you would like to help our Recycling efforts as we do need a new Coordinator!
We also try to feed the birds, encourage native wildflowers to grow in our grounds, and welcome people to use our space to relax - but please do so responsibly and do not leave litter! That’s what the bins and recycling boxes are for.