London, July 24 :

Food charity FareShare is setting up a scheme which it hopes will reduce the estimated seven million tonnes of food dumped in landfill sites in Britain every year. A quarter of the food buried in the ground is perfectly edible, says FareShare chief executive Tony Lowe. “It’s just that companies don’t know what else to do with it.”

Tomorrow sees the launch of FareShare 1st, a business that aims to offer the food and drink industry a cheaper, greener alternative to landfill. It will take the surplus product off the manufacturers’ ha-nds, distribute what is edible through its existing ne-twork, which fed more th-an 12,000 people last year, and then dispose of the rest by the greenest means possible, such as composting or animal feed.

The UK government is committed to reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfill, and FareShare 1st says that not only will its solution be more environmentally sustainable, it will also be cheaper for manufacturers. All profits from FareShare 1st will be ploughed back into the charity. Lowe reckons the venture will break even in the first year but is aiming for profits of 250,000 pounds by the fourth year.

“We will offer the food industry a one-stop solution,” he said. At the moment, FareShare takes only the food that can be eaten.