It has been estimated that we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food in the UK each year, a staggering one third of the amount we buy in the first place. The majority of this food waste is collected by local authorities and sent to landfill where it becomes a major source of methane, one of the .most potent greenhouse gases.

Of the total food wasted each year, around 60% could have been eaten had it been managed better. This avoidable food waste costs the UK £10.2 billion each year, which amounts to £420 per household.

With an increasing need for landfill sites, greater pressure to build incinerators, and a growing national waste bill, it is time to address this inexcusable throw-away culture we have created. Factoring in rising food bills and the need to reduce emissions, we must do all we can to cut down on the amount of food we waste.

In addition to managing our food better, only buying and cooking what we need, we should be aiming to compost the remaining food waste either at home or through council food disposal programmes such as the one run by Bristol City Council which keeps food waste separate from other household rubbish so that it can be composted.

The majority of us each throw away approximately 70kg of food per year – the weight of an average person. The amount of money we spend on this avoidable food waste (from growing it to processing, packaging, transporting, and storing it) is shocking.

We need to recognise that waste is a valuable resource. As we stated in the Quality of Life report, Britain should aspire to become a Zero Waste Economy. A focus on what we do with our food would be a good start.

The Government is losing the argument on the expansion of Heathrow.

They have nothing to say to the millions of Londoners who are fed up with the impact of Heathrow on their quality of life .They have nothing to say to those who cannot understand why a Government apparently so concerned about climate change should be so craven in accommodating the aviation lobby.

Their position stands and falls on the flimsiest of business cases. And now that is crumbling. This weekend Bob Ayling, ex-CEO of British Airways, came out of the woodwork to tell us that expansion of Heathrow was not in the national interest because the so-called ‘hub and spoke’ model is flawed and does not generate a national economic benefit. This must be right. How do we benefit from more people waiting for connecting flights at the airport?

As their credibility crumbles, the Government must think again. In my experience, people want a better Heathrow not a bigger one.

David Cameron has pushed concern for the environment to the top of the political agenda. His green crusade is both a symbol of change in the modern conservative party and a reconnection with the party’s finest tradition of responsible stewardship.

David anticipated the call for substance and set up the Quality of Life policy commission to recommend a path that balanced our need to grow with the need to protect our environment.

Our report can be accessed on www.qualityoflifechallenge.com Geoffrey Lean in the Independent on Sunday described it as “an extraordinarily sensible; thoughtful and detailed document”.  It calls for us to be much smarter about how we use the energy and natural resources on which we depend. This message is rooted in a core conservative dislike of waste.  The imperative of climate change demands it. Rising concerns about energy prices and security make it a no-brainer.  We are not calling for pain and sacrifice because we won’t take people with us with that message.   Instead we want to help people make more environmentally responsible choices. We recommend big tax breaks to persuade people to buy the greenest car in the class that is right for them.  We suggest cuts in stamp duty and council tax to encourage homeowners to reduce emissions from their homes and cut their energy bills at the same time. We argue that air passenger duty should be a tax on the plane and not the passenger because we want to incentivise airlines to buy more efficient planes and fill them. We want to see more investment in the railways so that people have a more attractive alternative to flying. Funding this agenda is made possible by winning the argument for raising the price of polluting behaviour.  Britain’s new status as an importer of oil and gas in an age of dwindling reserves concentrated in very few hands that we can trust.

The case for change is reinforced by 

Business as usual is not a sustainable option. Our future security and prosperity depend on tapping human ingenuity to rethink our use of energy and natural resources in a world that will have to accommodate 9.2 billion people by 2050The evidence tells us that we have reached a critical stage in terms of the need to turn rhetoric on environmental crisis into effective action.

As Conservatives we recognise that we must be honest about the problem and work with the grain of human nature to find the solution. People are unlikely to change their habits unless we make it clear that is easy; normal and in their interest.