Food

Cutting down on food waste can be easy

By BaxterStorey 02 May 2024

If we can do it, you can too.

Did you know that the UK wastes almost 10 million tonnes of food every year?

If we stopped throwing away good food then we could save the equivalent of at least 36 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. This is why we do everything we can to reduce food waste on campus, and it's so easy for you to do it at home too.

What you can do

There's so many simple ways you can cut down on your food waste as a student that'll not only have a great impact on the environment but also help you get organised and save money too!

1. Take an inventory - make a list of the food you already have before doing your food shopping to avoid overbuying and take note of expiry dates each day you look in the fridge.

2. Meal plan - if you plan what meals you want to make for the week, you will only need to buy specific ingredients. Try using some of the same ingredients in most of the recipes so you won't be using completely different ingredients for each meal.

3. Save leftovers - leftovers can make great lunches the next day, saving you time, waste and money. Or store them in the freezer to use at a later date.

4. Be creative - remember you can always turn food that isn't fresh into something delicious. For example, vegetable scraps and peels can be made into stock, stale bread can be made into croutons, use over-ripe bananas for banana bread. You can also make soup out of almost anything. Take some inspo from our leftover bubble and squeak or leftover chocolate rocky road recipes.

5. Buy 'ugly' foods - most supermarkets and farmers markets stock wonky veg these days. Just because they're oddly shaped doesn't mean they're not perfect!

6. Use apps like 'Too Good To Go' - rescue unsold food from local shops and restaurants at reduced prices to save it from going to waste. Don't forget about our 50% off unsold food offer on campus too, find out more below.

a plastic container filled with different types of food

What we do

Since 2014, zero of our waste has gone to landfill! We do this in so many different ways:

100% of our kitchen food waste is turned into renewable energy managed by Suez, click here to find out how.
We have recycled 2,464 litres of cooking oil into biodiesel by working with Ollecco, this is the same amount of carbon sequestered by 234 trees in a year.
Over 7% of fruit and veg in the UK never make it to the plate (more than £1 billion worth of great produce going to waste!) which is why we partner with Waste Knot who rescue surplus veg from farmers' fields and put them straight into chef's kitchens.
We offer 50% off unsold food - food which is about expire or perfectly good leftovers - in our canteens to avoid even more food going to waste.
We try to turn as much produce into new dishes as possible, from turning ripe bananas into banana bread to having a 'Wasted' counter at London College of Fashion every Wednesday and Friday which serves new creative dishes made from perfectly tasty leftover food.
We're bringing back Ground to Ground Coffee where you can take home a bag of used coffee grounds from our cafés for free and turn them into something amazing.

Or, if you're interested in all the other ways we stay sustainable, check out our sustainability booklet or read more about our Green Kitchen Standard award.