Zero Waste Podcast 8: Kitchen Canny

Today in Leith an exciting new kit called 'Kitchen Canny' launched from Changeworks. It aims to help householders find practical ways to reduce their food waste and save money. It includes membership to an community of people who, like the Prince Family, are up for a challenge:

 

They're like you, they don't waste food. But they took part in the Kitchen Canny Pilot along with 3000 others across Edinburgh, the Lothians and Boarders. The results were astounding. On average households reduced food waste by a whopping 37%. It seems we do waste food after all, in fact we waste over 2 million tones of it in Scotland every year.

What can Kitchen Canny do to make a difference? How is it different to food waste collections? Months after the pilot will the Prince family even remember Kitchen Canny? All this and more in our exclusive Kitchen Canny Launch podcast: 

 

If you have iTunes installed on your computer you can subscribe to our audio as a podcast by clicking here. 

A Kitchen Canny kit costs £10, see the new Kitchen Canny Website for details. You can also get connected to food, news and top tips on the Facebook Page and follow the project on twitter @KitchenCanny. 

Heralding today's launch, New Kitchen Canny Project Manager Evelyn said:

“This is an exciting time for Changeworks. The new Kitchen Canny kit is better than ever before and will save people money and time. Not only that, it will also reduce the amount of food waste we produce which is fantastic.

"We piloted and developed the whole kit so that it’s something practical that people will want to get their hands on and take part in. We’re also encouraging people let us know how they’re getting on and share their tips with others through the new Kitchen Canny Facebook app and website. Go online and get canny!”

Kitchen Canny tries to tackle the problem of food waste at the source. Food waste recycling collections started in Edinburgh this September, they deal with the results of our food waste problem but are expensive and use energy. There's more about food waste collections and some great stats on Scotland's frivolous food habits on this BBC video or read more on the Zero Waste Scotland wesbite.

Locally you can find out more about our zero waste future on the Zero Waste: Edinburgh and Midlothian website or read the Zero Waste Scotland plan, download it as a PDF. Note there are amendments since publication including the ban on biodegradable waste going to landfill moving forward to 2020 and small businesses having to recycle their food waste by 2015.

Food is high on the agenda and later in our podcast series we'll be catching up with Zero Waste Scotland to ask them how they plan to ban food from bins by 2020. If you have any questions you would like me to ask Zero Waste Scotland about food or waste please add them to the comments below. 

The Zero Waste Podcast series is produced by Emily Dodd for Greener Leith and funded by City of Edinburgh Council Waste Action Grants, Vegware and Changeworks. 

The theme tune for the podcast was brought to you by Waste Action Grant funded project, Trash Arts.