Find out why food waste is bad for the planet

Damers First School, Friday, 12 December 2025
30 points 14 pupils Explorer KS2, KS3, KS4

We are looking at the food waste bins from fruit snacks at break to lunch time. We started to calculate how much waste there is per week and what to do to reduce this. Having fruit that you can eat the skins of is a good start so no waste there. Trying to eat a bit more at lunch even if you're full or don't like it helps a little bit too, or ask for less if you know you aren't very hungry or don't like it much.
There will always be waste, but trying to reduce it is the best we can do. We check this every week.

Activity description

Did you know that food waste is one of the greatest sources of greenhouse gases?

Or that primary and secondary schools in the UK waste over 80,000 tonnes of food every year (that's the same as 8000 blue whales).

Tackling food waste in your school is a great way to cut your carbon emissions! This linked presentation provides an overview of why food waste is such a huge environmental problem. It can be run either as a one hour activity for an eco club or teachers can use the linked worksheets for 2-3 sessions of class work.