Green Times

Consumers are dumping the contents of one in every three shopping bags they buy straight into bins, which means tons of food going to waste, said Environmental Affairs Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi.”International conservation experts found that the global community dumps over 50 million tons of unused food each year to landfills,” Mabudafhasi said yesterday during the launch of National Environmental Month in Free State.

“This appalling statistic of disposed food is caused by over-shopping.”

She said it was estimated that the world population threw away 700 million slices of bread and other huge quantities of bakery goods; meat and fish; ready-made mixed food; and unopened dairy products.

“This translates to households disposing one in every three shopping bags straight into the bin,” she said at the launch at Ficksburg.

The local launch forms part of World Environment Month, which aims at increasing the level of public awareness of climate change in particular, and environment and tourism issues in general.

Mabudafhasi said consum-ers should exercise sensitivity to the environment by embracing environment friendly measures, by reducing the high de-mand of goods and purchasing only quantities of goods they needed.
Source: Independent On Line, South Africa