A gallery of pictures depicting food waste http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jul/19/food-waste?picture=350496027 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jul/19/food-waste?picture=350496027)
and an accompanying story http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/19/freegan-environment-food (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/19/freegan-environment-food)
I waste quite a lot of what I grow, especially courgettes/marrows. The pigs on our site are very well fed. They adore marrows. Though the hog is so keen on them and a bit of a sweetie I must say I am now producing them especially for him.
We have our food waste collected each week in a very small bin, it does highlight just how much is being thrown away.
Found that picture of a lettuce interesting, seems the fridge is the wrong place to put them.
We demand that our supermarkets always have fully stock shelves, that our fridges have a selection of perishables.
It is bound to cause waste.
I note too that the supermarket skips are usually in a locked area of their compound to prevent any one stealing what they have thrown out. Yet lots of people do still manage to take the stuff. At the risk of prosecution and getting a criminal record for freeloading.
It is a job in it's self sorting out packaged waste. Who is going to pay someone to sort out what is being thrown away?
When I worked in the back of a supermarket, on the baler for cardboard, part of the job included seperating recycle-able card from food waste. Meat wrappings don't half "hum" in hot weather... :-X