Last week, Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) released a study called Consumption: Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. Because I’m slow at math, I’m just now pondering its import.
My first instinct is to compare Britons’ food waste to ours. The ESRC study reports that the “Every year British consumers each waste £424 on food they do not eat.” In dollars, that’s $840 per year. The ESRC got that figure from the Soggy Lettuce Report 2004, which found that more money was wasted on food than anything else in Britain.
By comparison, the average American family of four wastes almost $600 annually. That’s still a lot, but not as big a slice of the (steak and kidney) pie as Britain. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to wave the ol’ stars and stripes.