The Ethical Consumer - Buying a Fridge

Refrigerators help keep our food fresher for longer and help to reduce waste. They also use a lot of energy, making it essential to choose a high-efficiency model. For more details, check out the Ethical Consumer's online guide for consumers.

In a lot of communities across the UK Community fridges are a hub of social activity, preventing food from being wasted and bring people together. Hubbub is the coordinator of this network.

Keeps food fresher for longer

A fridge can serve as an important hub for your family and can help to reduce food waste. You can make the most of storage space, find items quickly, and reduce your energy bills by choosing the right fridge best price for your space. Take into consideration the features you'd like before you purchase. Refrigerators come in a variety of sizes and shapes.

Certain brands offer additional storage options like an ice-cream drawer, a salad crisper and complete fish and meat compartments that maximize the levels of humidity for different food items. Other refrigerators incorporate innovative technologies such as Beko's HarvestFresh light tech that replicates the natural daylight cycle in an ice-cold drawer to keep vegetables fresher for longer. Other fridges, such as those from Siemens and Samsung, let you check the contents of your fridge freezers uk remotely using an app, so you aren't running out of something.

The way you stack your shopping can affect how long your food stays fresh, as different types of food thrive at slightly different temperatures. Sort your food by how you cook it and how often it is eaten. This will allow you to see what you are getting a little low on and plan your next shopping trip.

Community fridges can be an ideal opportunity to connect people in a community, stop food from going bad and meet new people. These fridges are operated by volunteers and open to all, whether they have access to their own food or not. They can take in food items donated by local food businesses, supermarkets and producers, homes and gardens. Then, they can be used to host cooking and growing classes, and provide a space for socialising and chatting.

Savings on food expenses

Fridges use a lot of energy. A model that is energy efficient can help you save money on your electricity bills. Fridges with a two-rate system (N cents/KW-h at night, and 3N cents/KW/h in the daytime) will save you more money. The Community fridge deals uk Network, coordinated by Hubbub, brings together groups that manage more than 700 fridges across the UK. It's an excellent way to meet new people to share food and stop fresh produce from going to waste.

Reduce food waste

Food waste is one of the most serious issues on the planet. About a third of all food that is produced for human consumption goes unnoticed or wasted. This is mainly food items tharts, residents of Sky Heights were significantly more likely to make use of their freezers and donate surplus food to local community fridges, which are accessible to all and allow anyone to take food items for free that could otherwise be wasted. These community fridges have been proven to reduce food waste and the carbon footprint that comes with it. Hubbub, a UK-wide organisation has a strong relationship with them.

Reduce carbon footprint

Refrigerators consume a lot of energy and are constantly on. There are new refrigerators that are more energy efficient and run on solar power. This could add to your energy costs and reduce your carbon footprint. It is however impossible to determine the exact carbon footprint of a refrigerator as this would depend on many factors such as the size of your fridge, how often you open and shut the door, the ambient temperature and the usage of the light in your fridge.

Another way to reduce the carbon footprint of your home is by making use of community fridges, which distribute food from local businesses, supermarkets producers, households, and even local businesses. They're a great way to reduce food waste, which is responsible for around a third of the global greenhouse emissions. The network of community fridges is run by Hubbub which connects all refridgerator uk based groups running community fridges.

Supermarkets also seek to reduce their carbon footprint by replacing HFC refrigerants by using greener ones. There are also initiatives to create solar-powered refrigerators which could be used as part of a global network of "food cold chains" which could help in reducing the effects of climate change.