Britons Waste Food Worth £10 Billion A Year!

The cost of wasted food in UK households is £10 billion a year, nearly two billion pounds higher than previously estimated, according to a new research by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

The research gives detailed new insights into the nature and amount of food waste thrown away in the UK and is believed to be the most comprehensive study of its kind ever carried out.

The research found that salad, fruit and bread were most commonly wasted and 60 per cent of all dumped food was untouched. It revealed that the average household throws out £420 of good food a year. For the average family with children it is higher at £610. Researchers also found that more than half the good food thrown out, worth £6 billion a year, is bought and simply left unused or untouched.

Environment Minister Joan Ruddock said: “These findings are staggering in their own right, but at a time when global food shortages are in the headlines this kind of wastefulness becomes even more shocking”.

For example, each day 1.3 million unopened yoghurt pots, 5,500 whole chickens and 440,000 ready meals are thrown away in the UK.

The study revealed that one billion pounds worth of wasted food is still “in date” (not expired).

It costs local authorities one billion pounds a year to dispose of food waste.

***** What a monumental waste of resources. At least we in Malaysia are not that bad.

UN Names Best And Worst Places To Live

Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world's most desirable country to live in, according to an annual United Nations table published on Tuesday that again puts Aids-afflicted sub-Saharan African states at the bottom.

Rich free-market countries dominate the top places, with Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada and Ireland the first five but the United States slipping to 12th place from eighth last year in the UN Human Development Index.

But the index, blending 2005 figures for life expectancy, educational levels and real per capita income, finds that all 22 countries falling into its "low human development" category are in sub-Saharan Africa, with Sierra Leone last.

In 10 of these countries, two children in five will not reach the age of 40, said the compilers at the UN Development Programme. Last year's report said HIV and Aids had had a "catastrophic effect" on life expectancy in the region.

The index ranks 175 UN member countries plus Hong Kong and the Palestinian territories. It does not include 17 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, because of inadequate data.

Norway had held top spot for six years but was edged into second place by Iceland this year because of new life expectancy estimates and updated figures for gross domestic product, or GDP, the report said.

UN officials played down the significance of minor short-term shifts in the rankings including the slide in the US position. They said if subsequent data for the year in question been available for last year's report, the United States would have been in 10th, not eighth place.

The United States scores high on real per capita GDP, which at $41 890 is second only to that of Luxembourg ($60 228), but less well on life expectancy - joint last in the top 26 countries, along with Denmark and South Korea, at 77.9 years.

Japanese have the longest life expectancy - 82.3 years - and Zambians the lowest, at 40.5.

The report said most countries had seen their human development index rise over the last 30 years, but in 16 it was lower than in 1990, and in three - the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe - lower than in 1975.

Per capita GDP is 45 times higher in Iceland than in Sierra Leone.

The United Nations has published its human development index every year since 1990. (Independent Online)

Australia - Tops In Booze; Greeks - Cigarettes; Japan - Newspapers; Ecuador - Murders

Norwegians enjoy the world's best quality of life, followed by Icelanders and Australians, according to an updated global league table book, while Africa dominates the bottom of the list.

Australians drink the most alcohol, Greeks smoke the most cigarettes, Japan reads the most newspapers and Ecuador has the most murders per head of population, according to the Economist's Pocket World in Figures 2008.

It adds that Japan has the world's largest proportion of elderly people with 26 percent of its population over 60, while tiny European country Luxembourg has the highest GDP per capita.

While the United States and Japan remain the biggest economies, they come in at eighth and seventh respectively on the quality of life stakes, according to the book, which compares 183 countries.

Britain, which is the world's fifth biggest economy, fares even worse, at 17th in the "human development" index, which the book says denotes quality of life.

At the bottom of the scale comes the West African state of Niger, while Sierra Leone, Mali and a string of other countries from the continent fill virtually all the last 20 positions.

On the environment front, the United States again tops the list of the world's biggest producers of carbon emissions with 4 800-million tons, followed by China on 4 140-million. Russia comes in third place on 1 500-million tons.

The book, which is put together by the influential British magazine, also reveals a string of interesting facts about lifestyle trends.

Australians drink the most alcohol overall, although the famously brewery-friendly Czechs drink the most beer per capita and Portugal imbibes the most wine.

On crime, Ecuador has 18.3 murders per 100 000 inhabitants, followed by Swaziland on 13.6 and Mongolia on 12.8.

The United States has by far the biggest prison population with 2.2 million behind bars, while China carries out the most executions - 3 400 in 2004.

Some of the economic figures could raise eyebrows, especially in the Economist's home country.

For example, house price inflation, which has rocketed in Britain in recent years, is actually highest in South Africa, where prices rose 351 percent from 1997-2006, followed by Ireland on 253 percent and Britain on 196 percent.

"The surprising finds this year are that there are two countries where house prices have gone up by more than us over the past decade; and that we spend the most per head on music," said the book's editor, Stephen Brough.

The book also includes an update of the Economist's so-called "Big Mac" index, which attempts to reflect purchasing power by the cost of a McDonald's burger.

The cheapest is in China at $1.41, with Hong Kong on $1.54 and Malaysia on $1.57, while the most expensive Big Mac in the world is to be found in Iceland, at nearly $7. (Independent Online)
Image - Source

KL, Georgetown Among Top 10 Best Locations In Asia For Asian Expats.

Georgetown, (pic) the capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang, has moved up in the list of best locations in Asia for Asian expatriates, a latest survey shows.

The city, ranked 12th five years ago, is now ranked 10th in the Location Ranking Survey conducted by ECA International, a leading knowledge and solutions provider for international human resource professionals.

The Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur is in ninth position, down from seventh five years ago.

Undertaken annually, the survey compares living standards in 254 locations globally according to categories including climate, air quality, health services, housing and utilities, isolation, social network and leisure facilities, infrastructure, personal safety and political tensions.

Overall scores are used by ECA member companies to establish allowances which compensate expatriate staff for the difficulties of living in their assignment location.

Singapore retains its leading position in the ranking, followed by Kobe in second place. Two other cities in Japan, Tokyo and Osaka, are in joint third position, followed by Hong Kong (5th), Macau (6th), Taipei (7th) and Bangkok (8th).

Karachi, Pyongyang, Islamabad, Dhaka and Dili are the locations in Asia which afford foreigners the least favourable quality of living, ECA International said.

"Excellent infrastructure and facilities, coupled with its cosmopolitan make-up, low crime rate, socio-political stability and favourable climate make Singapore a very favourable location for foreigners, and justify its top spot in the rankings," said Lee Quane, General Manager, ECA International Hong Kong.

Singapore also retained its number one position in the top 10 best locations in the world for Asian expatriates, followed by Sydney and Melbourne in second and third respectively.

Other cities in the top 10 best locations in the world for Asian expatriates are Kobe (4th), Canberra (5th), Vancouver and Copenhagen (joint 6th), Wellington (8th) and Amsterdam (9th) while Osaka, Tokyo, Brussels, Bonn, Dublin, Basel and Geneva are in joint 10th. (Bernama)
Images:
1) Georgetown.
2) Kuala Lumpur