WE have become a 'throw away' society.

Cheaper clothing and consumables could be contributing to the issue, but it's about time we all became aware of ways of saving the environment for future generations and doing more to save waste by preserving and re-cycling as much as possible.

To help communities achieve this, local community enterprises, Re-considered - a co-operative dedicated to preventing waste and creating value from waste, Grow Bradford - a catalyst for people to become more involved and connected with growing food, developing skills, improving health and transforming their local community and spaces, and partners are launching a new community venture based on preserving surplus fruit and vegetables.

Funded by Defra, through a scheme administered by WRAP, a charity delivering ground-breaking initiatives to support more sustainable economies and society, the initiative aims to tackle food waste by preserving.

Working alongside Bradford Council's markets service, they aim to capture surplus produce from St James Wholesale Market alongside local growers.

"Quite often this produce cannot be sold because it is very ripe or mis-shapen but it is brilliant for preserving as jams, chutneys and other products," explains Emma Hill, Emma Hill director and co-operative member of Re-considered.

"We will combine this surplus produce with a dash of local ingenuity and culture and create a truly unique preserve range. Recipes are being designed around seasonality, local cultures and flavour and will be a community collaboration.

"Bradford has a rich and diverse cultural heritage and food sector. It is also Curry Capital. As such we are not short in culinary know how and creativity."

Emma explains their aim to harness this by running community preserving workshops in a range of community settings to share recipes, flavours and skills.

The outcome will be the launch of a new brand 'Plenty - The People's Preserves' which they aim to showcase at Bradford's Food and Drink Festival which runs from October 30 to 31.

"We also want to develop and run a programme of preserving workshops throughout the year so others can learn this valuable skill. Our business will be a community affair," adds Emma.

She explains how the community will be involved in creating recipes, and in return, they will be offered free preserves and the chance to have their name on the labels.

Customers will also be encouraged to bring in surplus home grown vegetables which can be swapped for their preserves. All of the jars will have a deposit to encourage their return and enable their reuse and they will work with complementary local businesses.

"The Market Service is keen to enable their surplus to be distributed across the district to help alleviate food poverty. One of the issues is the capacity of groups to process this often very ripe produce quickly. We will therefore offer a food processing equipment loan scheme to local community groups," says Emma.

She says they will also run a programme of "how to" preserving workshops and sell preserving equipment.

Says Emma: "It is getting people to value food and all the effort that has gone into producing it and letting us think about it a bit more.

"I think people still don't like waste so they want to tackle it."

Colin Wolstenholme, markets manager who looks after St James's wholesale market in Bradford, the city centre retail markets and Keighley and District markets, says they are already working with organisations, such as Inn Churches in Bradford and local food banks, to put surplus produce to good use.

He explains six months ago they worked with the local school kitchen service using surplus food to provide 700 portions of soup.

"You are extending the shelf life of the product," says Colin.

Reducing food waste is something traders are keen to get involved with too.

"Quite a lot of traders are keen to get involved because food waste costs them to dispose of so they are able to reduce their costs by diverting it to other channels. They see the benefit where they can use that produce for good causes. It is a win win situation," adds Colin.

* Any business with surplus or a passion for preserving which is interested in sharing skills is asked to call 07403 394142 or 07985 969643 or email emma@re-considered.co.uk