The food industry must do more to stop millions of pounds of goods going to waste, according to a national charity. (BBC News 18 Sept)

FareShare, a charity which distributes food to projects helping the poor and homeless, is calling on suppliers and retailers to help drag thousands of Britons out of food poverty. FareShare acts as a waste broker, charging supermarkets and suppliers to take unwanted food which has been oversupplied, has packaging faults or is nearing the end of its shelf life. Companies like Kelloggs and Nestle are already among Fareshare's regular customers.

This sounds like a good solution for the food industry, but what should we as individuals be doing to curb the ridiculous amount of food we throw away each year?

The world is in the midst of a credit crisis, there's a global food shortage, and yet according to Philip Ward, director for local government services at WRAP, in the UK alone we throw away 6.7m tones of food every year. That's a staggering £10bn worth - and most of that ends up in landfill. Food waste that goes to landfill, decays to produce methane, which is a very potent greenhouse gas adding to climate change.

East Devon Council recently began a scheme to turn food waste into electricity. Kitchen leftovers and plastic bottles are being collected from about 12,000 homes in the Axe valley area on a weekly basis. The waste will then be recycled to produce a gas, generating electricity for the National Grid.

But can householders be bothered to further sort their rubbish? Do you want yet another wheelie bin cluttering up the garage or standing on the driveway? And how on earth do you keep track of which day to put out which particular bin?

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