TRiFOCAL*, the city-wide pilot project aimed at helping Londoners reduce food waste while promoting healthy and sustainable eating and recycling of unavoidable food waste, has named nine pioneering London boroughs that will support the initiative over the next two years.News of the nine boroughs was announced by Liz Goodwin, Chair of LWARB - which is working in partnership with WRAP as Resource London - and with Groundwork London to deliver the EU funded TRiFOCAL project.

The nine boroughs, which are based in North, South, East and West London, are: Bexley, Croydon, Hackney, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Merton, Sutton and Tower Hamlets.

Speaking at The London Conference on Thursday 16 March, Liz Goodwin said, “I want London to become the leading city that others look to for inspiration about how to address some of the pressures all cities are facing, and sustainable consumption and management of food is right at the top of the list. The TRiFOCAL project is an exciting opportunity to find solutions. It’s great to be working with WRAP and Groundwork London as well as nine London boroughs and a range of European cities. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve.”

The project will target households, schools, community groups, hospitality and food services businesses as well as large businesses in the boroughs through an integrated communications campaign later this year**. This will focus on raising awareness about the value of food – combining messaging about avoiding wasting food, healthy and sustainable eating and increasing recycling rates for unavoidable food waste both in the home and when eating out. There will also be London wide activity including engagement with large employers to raise awareness and a London harvest festival to celebrate the value of food.

This is the first time these core messages will be tailored and targeted simultaneously in a choreographed approach on this scale.

Successes within the nine London boroughs will be shared across other London boroughs to amplify their impact, while seven EU cities have joined the programme as ‘replication cities’. These will look to conduct similar initiatives within their own municipalities. They are Barcelona, Brussels, Burgas, Dublin, Milan, Oslo and Växjö.

Peter Maddox, Director, Government Programmes WRAP and Resource London board member said, “It’s very exciting to announce this phase of TRiFOCAL London with our nine partner boroughs. Having this scale of support will help us test, measure and understand how we can apply learnings from these pilots across our capital city, and beyond. We shall test different approaches combining the three core themes of reducing food waste, healthy and sustainable eating, and increasing food waste recycling. This will help people and businesses save money, and benefit the environment.”

The TRiFOCAL project seeks to raise awareness amongst those living in the capital, along with commuters and visitors to the city. It aims to prevent food waste by changing planning, shopping, storage and meal preparation habits.

Notes to editors

• *TRiFOCAL London – Transforming City FOod hAbits for Life, is the latest project to be led by Resource London - the partnership between WRAP and LWARB - together with Groundwork London. TRiFOCAL is funded by the European Union’s LIFE programme - project number LIFE15/GIE/UK/000867.
• **Details of the campaign will be announced in June.
• Business, community groups or schools wishing to get involved in the project should contact trifocal@wrap.org.uk.
• A new dedicated website has been launched with information about the TRiFOCAL programme trifocal.eu.com and a Twitter profile @TRiFOCAL_London
• London’s households throw away an estimated 900,000 tonnes of food every year, of which 540,000 tonnes is avoidable food waste. The cost to London waste authorities of reprocessing/disposing of this food waste is estimated at over £50 million per annum.
• It costs consumers £1.4 billion per year to purchase the food and drink thrown away in London, generating the equivalent of 2.1 million tonnes of CO2e emissions.
• For schools, WRAP’s research identified that around 80% of food waste was avoidable across both primary and secondary schools.

A. Resource London is a partnership programme formed by LWARB and WRAP in 2015. The programme supports London boroughs to deliver more consistent and efficient waste and recycling services for London. The partnership represents a one-agency approach providing specific, focused and tailored regional and local support for London waste authorities. You can find out more about Resource London on their website: www.resourcelondon.org

B. First established in 2000 WRAP is a not for profit organisation and registered charity whose vision is a world where resources are used sustainably. WRAP works with governments, businesses and communities to deliver practical solutions to improve resource efficiency. Our mission is to accelerate the move to a sustainable resource-efficient economy through:
a. re-inventing how we design, produce and sell products,
b. re-thinking how we use and consume products, and
c. re-defining what is possible through re-use and recycling.

C. The London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB), chaired by Liz Goodwin, works in conjunction with the Mayor’s office and London Councils and has a remit to improve waste management in the capital. For more information on LWARB visit www.lwarb.gov.uk

D. Groundwork London is a social and environmental regeneration charity. For almost 20 years it has been at the forefront of environmental and social regeneration in London; changing places and lives for the better, in some of the capital’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In today’s challenging social and economic climate the work it does has never been more important; creating better places, improving people’s economic prospects and helping people to live and work in a more sustainable way. Its three over-arching objectives are:

• Creating better places – supporting people to work collectively to make their surroundings greener, safer and healthier and be actively involved in the way decisions are made about services in their area.
• Promoting greener living and working – helping people and businesses learn more about their environmental impact and act responsibly to reduce natural resource use and improve their health.
• Improving people’s prospects – delivering support to increase the confidence, skills, well-being and employability of those furthest removed from the labour market, in particular young people.

For more information visit www.groundwork.org.uk/london or @GroundworkLON or on Facebook www.facebook.com/GroundworkLondon Registered Charity No. 1121105

Media contact information for TRiFOCAL:

• Ian Palmer, PR Officer WRAP
• Ian.palmer@wrap.org.uk
• 01295 819 677
• Website - www.wrap.org.uk
• Twitter - @WRAP_UK

If you would like to work with TRiFOCAL or for more information on the project, please get in touch.

Contact: Katharine Fox, Project Manager, WRAP

Email: TRiFOCAL@wrap.org.uk

Telephone: 01295 819900