Skibbereen Tidy Towns

4th Years point of view on Skibbereen taking on #FoodWaste

Introduction: We are 4th years who have volunteered to do one week of work for the Skibbereen Tidy Towns community for our social placement. Over this past week we have learned a lot about the state of food waste in our local area and around the world.

Most people are aware that food waste is a problem, but the actual extent of the problem might surprise you. Recent statistics from a KWD survey of waste collected from Skibbereen household bins show that organic waste makes up a whopping 42% of landfill waste, with 20% of general waste being organic from a general sample of 5330kg. This is concerning, especially considering that globally, over 25% of food produced is wasted. Food waste is also a significant contributor to climate change, generating 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing food waste is a crucial step in mitigating climate change.

Skibbereen taking on Food Waste – how it’s going (2023)

Skibbereen taking on Food Waste text plus image of carrot and tomatoes

“It is wonderful to see you are collaborating with outside organizations to address the major problem of food waste through organizing food waste awareness events”
National Tidy Towns competition adjudicator, October 2022.

Readers could be forgiven for wondering if the Skibbereen Tidy Towns group undertakes any projects other than food waste, given the volume of posts published on our social channels and here on our web page in the last number of months. Our response is simply that our approach is to do one or two projects well, given the available resources, than do multiple projects to a lower standard. The invitation from the National Tidy Towns competition is to ‘Briefly identify ONE specific project where particular effort was applied since July 1st.’ For 2022-23 we have chosen Skibbereen taking on Food Waste as our featured project and include here a summary of food waste awareness events that have taken place in recent months.

Young Chef Recipes booklet – Issue 1 (2023)

To celebrate National Stop Food Waste Day on 1 March, the team at Skibbereen taking on Food Waste is delighted to share with you the wonderful new publication of seasonal food recipes from the students of Abbeystrewry and St Patrick’s national schools. To read, please click on the link below:

http://online.mobissue.com/jopt/ulmk/