Archive for the ‘UK’ Category
- In: 'staggering' | BBC NEWS | Food | on | scale | UK | waste
- Leave a Comment
People are needlessly throwing away 3.6m tonnes of food each year in England and Wales, research suggests.
The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) found that salad, fruit and bread were most commonly wasted and 60% of all dumped food was untouched.
The study analysed the waste disposed of by 2,138 households.
Environment Minister Joan Ruddock said the findings were “staggering” at a time of global food shortages and WRAP added it was an environmental issue.
‘Value of food’
The study found that £9bn of avoidable food waste was disposed of in England and Wales each year.
It is mostly food that could have been consumed if it had been better stored or managed, or had not been left uneaten on a plate.
Much of that food waste goes into landfill rather than into council food disposal and composting programmes, it said.
 |
 There are climate change costs to all of us of growing, processing, packaging, transporting, and refrigerating food that only ends up in the bin  Joan Ruddock, Environment Minister
|
Based on the data for England and Wales, WRAP estimated that householders across the UK throw away £10.2bn of avoidable food waste every year.
Using the same extrapolation, they also estimated the average UK household needlessly throws away 18% of all food purchased. Families with children throw away 27%.
The study also suggested £1bn worth of food wasted in the UK was still “in date”.
Nearly a quarter, in terms of cost, was disposed of because the “use by” or “best before” date had expired.
Liz Goodwin, chief executive of WRAP, said food waste had “a significant environmental impact.
|
READ THE REPORT
Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader
|
“What shocked me the most was the cost of our food waste at a time of rising food bills, and generally a tighter pull on our purse strings,” Ms Goodwin said.
“It highlights that this is an economic and social issue, as well as about how much we understand the value of our food.”
Yoghurts and chickens
The study also found that:
- Bakery goods made up 19%, by weight, of all avoidable food waste. Vegetables contributed 18%.
- Meat and fish also made up a large proportion – 18% – of the total money wasted on food. WRAP said 5,500 whole chickens were thrown away each day in the UK.
- “Mixed foods” like ready meals made up 21% of the total cost of waste, with 440,000 thrown away each day.
- The two most significantly wasted foods that could have been eaten were potatoes and bread
- Yoghurt was a commonly abandoned product, with an estimated 1.3m unopened pots disposed of each day.
- In: Brighton | credit | defence | estate agent | Housing | Knowledge base | market | mortgages | slow down | Southampton | UK | Yorkshire
- Leave a Comment
With the housing market slowing down, times are hard for estate agents. But given their reputation – however unfair – will people care?
“Sympathy” and “estate agent” are not words often found in the same sentence.
Characterised as pushy and insincere, the good ones, just like journalists and politicians, are viewed as the exception rather than the rule.
But given the doom and gloom headlines about the housing market, how badly are they suffering?
As they depend so directly on sales, the fall in mortgages does not make happy reading. Between November and February, the monthly figure for mortgages on new homes fell from 80,000 to below 50,000, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
 |
It’s tough out there, says Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, but save your sympathy because it’s only the bad ones who are going to the wall.
“Estate agents offering a good service, qualified people who know what they’re doing and employ quality people, they always rise above others in this kind of market. The cream rises to the top.
“So far the people closing offices and laying off staff, the feeling I’m getting is it’s not our members – it’s not the older established agents – it’s those who set up in the boom period and thought ‘Anyone can sell property’.
“I don’t have massive sympathy for those who aren’t doing a proper job.”
Knowledge base
Overall it’s a mixed picture with agents in some areas prospering and some not. Lettings are doing well but the corporate sector has wielded the axe, with big names like Countrywide among those closing offices in this sector.
|
They may be taking home less money than they need to pay the mortgage, with the obvious irony that entails Henry Pryor, ex-estate agent
|
“A lot of estate agents haven’t seen this sort of slower market before, and it will come as a shock to them. But it shouldn’t because it means it’s a proper negotiating, selling market when you have to know what you’re talking about.”
He is confident the market could pick up again soon because – unlike in the crash of the early 90s, when interest rates and unemployment were high – there are plenty of people eager to move.
A bleaker picture is painted by Henry Pryor, a former estate agent and housing expert, who says that with sales falling so dramatically, it’s a desperate situation for people dependent on commission.
“A lot of estate agents are paid a basic salary and a performance bonus.
“Through no fault of their own, they will not be doing the business they would expect to be and this will have very serious repercussions on relationships and marriages because they may be taking home less money than they need to pay the mortgage, with the obvious irony that entails.”
|
- In: Carla Bruni | Christie’s | Disrupting | Naked | Nicolas Sarkozy | parliament | photos | Trip | UK
- Leave a Comment
French president Nicolas Sarkozy started his first official visit to the UK – the day after it was reported that an auction house is to sell Carla Bruni nude pictures.
How’s that for great political timing!
Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni (now officially Carla Bruni-Sarkozy), who married in February, were greeted by the Prince of Wales and by the Duchess of Cornwall after the presidential plane landed in London Wednesday.
The French president’s schedule included a full state banquet at Windsor Castle on Wednesday night, where he is staying as the guest of the queen.
On Wednesday afternoon, Sarkozy addressed both British Houses of Parliament in French and discussed many important matters of state.
But away from the politics, Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife was attracting as much, if not more, attention than her husband during the two-day visit.
The famous auction house Christie’s is to sell nude photographs of former model Bruni-Sarkozy, taken by Michel Comte in 1993, in New York next month.
Yes, we are talking about Carla Bruni naked, people. Check it out …
With Carla Bruni naked photos on the verge of auction, the Associated Press quoted the French president’s office as saying the sale of thepics is a private matter.
Kate Moss nude and Gisele Bundchen nude photos are also nearing the same auction block, but it’s Carla Bruni – the new, hot wife of the French President – who has been attracting even attention of celebrity news and mainstream media.
For its part, the UK media has covered the French president’s divorce, and courtship of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and subsequent marriage, in great depth, with several using her visit as reason to reprint images from her modeling career.
Continue reading this article on CNN …
Valleywag - valleywag.wordpress.com 
Recent Comments