THE amount of waste that high street food sellers generate has come under questioning after a photo of Greggs in Durham surfaced that showed ‘a waste mountain’ piled up outside the city centre facility.

Yesterday (February 9), an image was captured by concerned resident Peter Garthwaite, who was shocked by the number of litter bags that he spotted while he was visiting the city.

After contacting The Northern Echo, Mr Garthwaite is keen to highlight the environmental impact that food retailers are making but has also expressed that Greggs isn’t to blame for the issue.

Read more: Escaped pig wanders into Easington Colliery Club

This is due to his belief that ‘most’ shops could do better at playing their part in reducing their climate footprint, and the fact that Mr Garthwaite, who lives in Darlington, finding out that none of the rubbish had food within it.

He said: “I was thinking to myself when I saw it ‘this isn’t right’. Someone should be looking at this and shining the light on it. It could be the case that it might be the normality in the industry and each shop does it, but it seems an awful lot of litter bags to me.

“It seemed to be a lot of cups and lids, and while I was impressed that there was no food waste, I want people to know what happens when people buy a ‘convenience coffee’ and ditches the cup – that’s a lot of plastic.

Read more: Royal superfan from County Durham hails Queen as ‘Elizabeth the Great’

“It maybe a one-off, it might be how things usually are, but people should be more aware. Maybe it’s not the worst example on the high street, and Greggs in Durham might be unfortunate because they must load rubbish at the front and not at the back.

“But people shouldn’t stop highlighting this and taking companies to account if they can.”

After the image was shared, The Northern Echo approached Greggs to get their take on the situation. The high street giant, who has hundreds of stores across the country, has cited that food at the end of the day is given to community groups and charities.

Read more: Billingham Synthonia saved from extinction after £10k donation

They have also noted that the ‘large majority’ of rubbish goes to landfill and are continuing to work with partners to increase their green credentials in the future.

A spokesperson for Greggs said: “We divert 99.6 per cent of waste from our manufacturing sites away from landfill.  We continue to work closely with our waste management partners to ensure that all our waste streams are processed through the most sustainable routes.

“To avoid wasting edible food in our shops, we aim to give away unsold food to community groups and charities. 

“In the last year, we achieved our target of doubling food donations and have ambitious plans to grow this more in the years ahead. 

“Some of our shops have direct links with local organisations and we also partner with the Trussell Trust and FareShare to donate food to worthy causes. We have now been working with FareShare for over a decade and supply eight of their regional distribution centres.”

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can also follow our dedicated County Durham Facebook page for all the latest in the area by clicking here.

For all the top news updates from right across the region straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on newsdesk@nne.co.uk or contact 01325 505054