Shrewsbury Town Council leads bid to become the UK’s leading zero food waste town

Sainsbury’s are seeking a UK town with a population of 15,000 to 300,000 to become the test bed for some of the most innovative ideas to reduce food waste.

The Sainsbury's Waste Less, Save More town challenge is being launched in response to the escalating issue of household waste, which results in the average family throwing away £700 of uneaten food a year.

From the start of 2016, Sainsbury's will partner with the selected town, investing £1m to trial some of the best ideas from around the globe to uncover the most effective ways to reduce food waste and save people money.

Helen Ball, Town Clerk of Shrewsbury Town Council, said:

"This is a fantastic opportunity to strengthen our food economy, to reduce poverty, to save money benefitting not only local families and households, but community groups and organisations whilst protecting the environment.

"The closing date for entries is very tight with completed application forms need to be submitted by 30th October but there is nothing like tight deadlines for focussing the mind.

"In Shrewsbury, we have a great track record on food and some great initiatives happening now which we can build on and which put us in a strong position.

"We are organising a community meeting on Monday 26th October, at the Guildhall between 7 - 8.30pm and we would love you to come along and share your ideas on how to combat food waste. If you aren’t able to come to the meeting on the 26th but would like to contribute please let us know and we’ll find a good time to talk.

"To help us demonstrate the Town’s support for the project we have developed a questionnaire to capture everyone’s thoughts about food waste. Please do fill it in and share the link with others."

The year-long trial is phase one of a five-year commitment and £10m investment from Sainsbury's to help reduce waste across the country.

Additionally, the company will work closely with the local authority and key community groups in the successful town to crowd-source new suggestions on how food waste could be reduced.

Findings and recommendations from this trial phase in year one will be developed into a blueprint and made public in year two so that communities across the country can benefit from the results.

The final phases of Sainsbury's Waste Less, Save More campaign will be focused on supporting the changes that need to be made to ensure a long-term difference and measurement of the activity and looking at opportunities to reduce other kinds of household waste.

The closing date for applications is 11.59pm on Friday October 30. The winner will be notified by December 1.