Ms Fiona McCoole:

Waste prevention and behaviours are very complex, and positive behaviours are often a mix of a number of different steps to do the right thing. Understanding where the change needs to happen and the attitudes and behaviours of the population is very important. As regards Stop Food Waste, there has been a big focus on looking at behavioural insights and doing market research into behaviours, attitudes and preferences among the population. How they prevent food waste or opportunities to prevent food waste are the focus. We know that a big cause of food waste is lack of planning, so a lot of information in respect of our communication campaigns for Stop Food Waste is about proper management and planning of meals and how to store and how to purchase food. Our focus in the Stop Food Waste programme is on prevention as opposed to segregation, but among the public there will always be some unavoidable food waste, whether that is peelings or skin or bones. In that case the message is always to make sure they have an organic bin and segregate their food waste in order that it can be recycled, it is sent for anaerobic digestion or composting and they get the maximum value from it. Prevention is the key because without prevention we cannot reduce food waste tonnage that is generated. If, however, we have unavoidable food waste, the message is to make sure it is segregated.