Cutting down on the amount of food we waste couldn't be easier.

TV Chef, Ainsley Harriott, says: "You don't have to be a chef to know how to cut down on food waste, you just need to care about your pocket and the rest will follow."

Here are some facts:

• The food we throw away needlessly in the UK is responsible for the equivalent of 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year; it's not just the methane that's released when the food goes to landfill that's the problem, but also the energy spent producing, storing and transporting the food to us.
• In the UK we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food every year, roughly a third of everything we buy. Most of this avoidable and could have been eaten if only we had planned, stored and managed it better. Less than a fifth is truly unavoidable – things like bones, cores and peelings.
• In 2006 to 2007 Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland residents threw away 52,000 tonnes of food. This is not just peelings and scraps, it includes food that is perfectly good to eat.
• UK households throw away around £400 worth of food every year
• If we all stopped wasting food, it would be the equivalent of taking one in five of the nation's cars off the road