Have Breakfast with the Birds

Haith's know a thing or two about birds and therefore it comes as no surprise that they’re about to launch a Limited Edition Bird Breakfast. It’s a celebration of Haith’s 75th Anniversary and the London 2012 Olympic Games so they’ve come up with the aptly named – Olympeck! Bird Breakfast.

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and the same can be argued for birds and their breakfast. The first meal of the day will kick start the metabolism and set you up for the day ahead, so Haith’s are encouraging Britons to take 10 minutes to have breakfast with the birds throughout the Spring and Summer.

Of course, there’s a serious message behind this fun campaign: breakfast is good for us, and it’s the perfect occasion to feed the birds too.

 In an Olympic year we’ll all be checking our waistlines, but let’s spare a thought for the garden birds and help them get out of the blocks this summer.

Haith’s are such good sports, so to celebrate their 75th Anniversary they’re giving away one bag of Olympeck! Bird Breakfast a day for 75 days from 14th May until 27th July which also just happens to be the date for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Haith’s – The Bird Food Specialist Since 1937, have put together Olympeck! Bird Breakfast and it’s been created to feed to lots of different birds on three different levels: bird feeder, bird table or straight from the ground.

“This is the best way to attract lots of birds,” say Haith’s. The mix contains sunflower hearts, which have overtaken the popularity of peanuts in recent years. It will be popular with just about every common garden bird who’d visit your bird table for breakfast: tits, finches, thrushes, Robins, Wrens, Blackbirds, House Sparrows and Doves.

For the chance to bag yourself a bag of Haith’s Olympeck! Bird Breakfast, enter the FREE daily competition on the Haith’s website at www.haiths.com from 14th May 2012. Haith’s Limited Edition Olympeck! Bird Breakfast will also be available to purchase online.

On your marks! Get set! Go Olympeck!

Food waste down

Tighter household budgets and soaring house prices mean people in Britain are throwing away 13% less food than three years ago. (EDITOR: And a desire to be 'greener'?)

The figures come from the government’s Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) which says that we threw away 8.3m tonnes of food in 2007 but only 7.2m tonnes last year. However, that is still enough waste food to fill Wembley Stadium right up to the roof.

However, even with this reduction a fifth of all food purchased is still currently wasted – of which 60% is fit for consumption! And with Christmas just around the corner it is estimated that families will bin around 230,000 tonnes of food over the festive period. (Source DEFRA 2010)

WRAP's chief executive, Dr Liz Goodwin, said "Despite the reduction, the food we waste in homes which accounts for about half the UK's food waste, is still worth £12bn a year as a result of food-price inflation. The food that is being wasted throughout the supply chain is significant, at a time when food security is a major global issue," she said.

Greenhouse gas emissions, associated with the manufacture, distribution, storage, use and disposal of wasted food, are still at a worrying 17 million tonnes.

Although sending less waste food to the tip has saved councils £80m a year due to lower landfill charges, more can be done and households can help to reduce this cost further still.

Richard Barker, CEO of food waste recycling firm BiogenGreenfinch says “Each Christmas we see a large increase in the amount of food sent to our three anaerobic digestion plants around the country. In these austere times we would encourage households to realistically consider what they will purchase, store and cook over the festive period in order to reduce the amount of food wasted. However there will always be some food wasted and where this occurs, sending it to be processed by anaerobic digestion to produce power for homes is a far more sensible option than throwing it into the ground to cause pollution.”

BiogenGreenfinch takes household food waste from 12 local councils around the country and processes it to produce electricity for the national grid and a fertiliser for crops.

FACTFILE:

• BiogenGreenfinch owns and operates 3 food waste AD plants in the UK, Biocycle in Shropshire, Twinwoods in Bedfordshire and Westwood in Northamptonshire.

• These plants process a combined total of 90,000 tonnes of food waste each year to generate sufficient electricity for 6,000 homes continually for a year.

• For more information on anaerobic digestion see www.biogengreenfinch.co.uk