Canadians are among the worst when it comes to food waste, but a number of B.C. cities and a group of food retailers are trying to change that.

B.C. communities, Walmart and Sobeys launched a Love Food Hate Waste campaign Wednesday, aimed at changing people鈥檚 behavior around food and reducing how much food is tossed each day.

Led by the National Zero Waste Council 鈥� founded by Metro Vancouver in 2013 鈥� other groups participating include Toronto and RECYC-QU脡BEC.

According to the council, more than 60 per cent of the food Canadians throw away could have been eaten, costing the average household more than $1,100 per year. About 2.2 million tonnes of edible food is discarded each year.

鈥淭he campaign is the first coordinated national approach to help Canadians change their relationship with food,鈥� said Malcolm Brodie, chair of the National Zero Waste Council, in a news release.

鈥淚t only takes a small change, such as buying only what we need so food doesn鈥檛 spoil or get forgotten in the back of the fridge and is then thrown out.鈥�

The campaign offers practical and easy tips for keeping and storing fresh food, using up existing ingredients and better planning to avoid over-purchasing.

It鈥檚 based on a model in the United Kingdom, where avoidable household food waste was cut by 21 per cent in its first five years.

ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
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