How much food do you waste?

Dan Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English- the show that brings you an interesting topic, authentic listening practice and six new items of vocabulary. I’m Dan…

Neil And I’m Neil. In this episode we’ll be discussing food waste, just as soon as….

Dan Neil, did you just throw the rest of that apple away?

Neil Yeah. It was quite a big one and I couldn’t finish it.

Dan Neil, you know you shouldn ‘t waste food.

Neil Waste meaning to throw away without consuming or using. Ah, it’s only an apple. It’s not the end of the world, Dan.

Dan Well, that’s where you could be wrong, my friend. Let me prove it to you, with this week’s question. How much of the world’s food is wasted each year?

a) a half

b) a third

c) a quarter

Neil I ‘m not sure. I know it’s a lot so I’m going to say a) a half

Dan We’ll find out if you’re right or not at the end of this show. So, the actual figure is 1.3 billion tons of food, which is enough to feed a billion hungry people. Where do you think all this food waste comes from?

Neil Well, restaurants, I imagine. I mean, they can ‘t give one customer’s leftovers to another! That would be unhygienic!

Dan Leftovers are the remains of food which has not been eaten. And while you are right, restaurants are not the main contributor to food waste.

Neil Supermarkets! I bet they throw out loads of food once it goes past its sell-by-date, or the date which it can be legally sold by.

Dan Think closer to home.

Neil It’s us, isn’t it?

Dan Yes. In Europe an incredible 53% of food waste comes from households, which results in 88 million tonnes of food waste a year. And I bet you can’t guess what we do with it?

Neil I want to say recycle, but I can see from your face, Dan, that it’s not.

Dan No. Unfortunately it goes into landfills and decays.

Neil A landfill is a place where rubbish is buried. I see, so the food rots and this causes greenhouse gasses which lead to global warming and climate change.

Dan Exactly, and the end of the world. But, remarkably the European country of Denmark has managed to reduce its food waste by a very significant 25%

Neil That’s impressive, how did that happen?

Dan They attribute it to a woman called Selina Juul.

Neil I’ve heard about her. She became a household name in Denmark overnight!

Dan A household name is one which everybody knows, and that ‘s right.

Neil I thought she was Russian?

Dan She is. But, I’ll let her explain.

INSERT Selina Juul I come from a country where there were food shortages, back then in Moscow, communism collapsed, we had the collapse of infrastructure , we were not sure we could get food on the table. And coming to Denmark, seeing this abundance , seeing these supermarkets filled with food. But then I was really shocked to see a lot of food getting wasted.

Neil So Selina grew up in Moscow at a time when there wasn’t enough food because of the collapse of infrastructure , meaning the basic systems and services of a society - such as food transportation.

Dan Then when she moved to Denmark, she found an abundance , or more than enough, food, but she saw it being wasted.

Neil So she decided to do something about it?

Dan Yes. She started a Facebook page in 2008 called ‘stop wasting food’ and 9 years later the Danish government credits her for their reduction in food waste.

Neil How did she do it?

Dan Well, lots of ideas really. She convinced some supermarkets to stop selling their items in bulk so that people buy only what they need. She’s produced a leftovers cookbook and she ‘s working with three governments to set up an education programme in schools.

Neil Wow, she’s a busy woman. So how about you educate me with the answer to this week’s question.

Dan Sure! I asked you how much of the world’s food is wasted each year?

a) a half

b) a third

c) a quarter

Neil And I said a) a half

Dan And I’m terribly sorry, mate, but you’re wrong. The answer is b) a third.

Neil Well, it’s not as bad as I thought it was, at least.

Dan Shall we look at the vocabulary then?

Neil Yes, let’s. First we had waste. If you waste something, you throw it away or lose it without using it or consuming it. Common things we waste are food, time, money and energy. We also have some expressions with waste too. Can you think of one, Dan?

Dan A waste of space is an expression which means a thing is completely without value. For example, I ‘m a complete waste of space in the kitchen. I can’t cook at all. Next we had leftovers. Leftovers are the remains of food or a meal, which have not been eaten. What do you tend to do with your leftovers , Neil?

Neil Oh I love leftovers! Sometimes I think they taste even better than the original meal!

Dan I agree! Pizza’s a great example!

Neil Then we had landfill. A landfill is a place where rubbish is dropped and buried. In colloquial English we might say, a dump. Do you ever take your rubbish to the dump , Dan?

Dan Not if I can help it. I prefer to recycle as much as possible. I only go to the dump if I have to get rid of a large appliance, such as a fridge. Then we had a household name. To be a household name is to be well-known by ordinary people of a particular place or culture. Can you think of a person who is a household name at the moment, Neil?

Neil Oh, that’s very easy. Donald Trump springs to mind! Everyone must know who he is. Then we had infrastructure. Infrastructure is the basic systems and services of a society - such as electricity supply, trains, and roads.

Dan And finally we had abundance. If you have an abundance of something, you have more than you need. Do have anything in abundance , Neil?

Neil Well, when it comes to my children I have to have an abundance of patience ….well, most of the time. And, that’s the end of today’s 6 Minute English. Please join us again soon!

Dan And we are on social media too - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. See you there.

Both Bye!