Christmas is the time of plenty – when cupboards and fridges are full to bursting and tables are never bare.

It is perhaps not the perfect time to dwell on questions such as how much food we British throw away in an average week. Or maybe it is.

Research by the national Waste Resources Action Programme shows that almost a third of food is thrown away unnecessarily – about £420 per household per year.

And at Christmas, food wasted in the UK increases by a massive 80 per cent. As well as being a waste of money, the huge quantity of food we throw away is damaging the environment by adding to the amount of waste ending up in landfill, and through the energy, water and packaging being used in the food production process.

To try and re-educate people on food use, WRAP has launched a Love Food Hate Waste campaign to re-educate people on food use. The campaign is the ‘Waste Not Want Not’ of the modern day, providing handy tips, advice and recipes for leftovers to help everyone waste less food.

For those who lived during wartime and post-war rationing, cooking from leftovers was part of everyday life. People were inventive with food, often putting together tasty meals from scraps. They were loathe to throw anything away.

Much left-over food can provide the basis for many delicious meals such as soups, stews, stir fries and omelettes.

Books such as The Use It All Cookbook can help people reduce waste and put food on the plate rather than in landfill. Packed with recipes and an A-Z of ingredients and related recipes, the book answers questions such as: Can you use up that single apple or carrot? How can you make that left-over, cold turkey tasty? And what can you do with the last dollop of yoghurt?

The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources with serious environmental implications. The energy, water and packaging used in food production, plus the transportation and storage all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.

For the Allen family, reducing waste is a way of life – with food being a top priority.

CarolAnn Allen, husband Bruce and daughters Imogen, 13, and 11-year-old Bessie strive to throw nothing away. “We try to make use of everything,” says CarolAnn. “Very little is wasted.”

Left over food from meals like stew or curry are either eaten another day by the family, or used for a work packed lunch.

“Often Bruce will take leftovers to work in a container the following day,” says CarolAnn, a design and textile student. “And I often take left-over pasta into college which I mix with chick peas, pumpkin seeds or olives and tuna. With left-over cous cous I add things like cold meat, nuts and seeds. I also keep cold pasta to use in a stir-fry with vegetables for the girls.”

Bruce, a surveyor, uses a chicken carcass from the butcher to make stock, so there is no need to buy it in cubes. “He does this with most meat and also with fish,” says CarolAnn.

The family, who live in Rawdon, re-use Christmas turkey in the usual way, for cold snacks, as well as curry and curry pie. “Meals can be made from left-over vegetables – such as soup, stir fry and mash,” says CarolAnn.

They share a vegetable garden with neighbours. “This year we grew onions, cabbage, spinach, artichokes and strawberries. We also grow curly kale and courgettes and we have a couple of blackcurrant bushes. If one of us brings in a good harvest of a certain crop we share it out, and we swap.” “And we keep bees – we have three hives,” she adds. “This year was a bad summer but last year we had enough honey to keep us going for 12 months.” They swap produce with their neighbours, exchanging honey, jam, marmalade and chutney.

“We are all quite similar – we all make marmalade, jam and chutney, and if someone has made a batch we will share it.”

What the family can’t reuse, local wildlife can. CarolAnn and her daughters enjoy making fat balls from used fat, lard, bird seed, raisins and stale cheese. “We use fat cut off the joint on Sunday – the remaining good meat is left in the fridge for next day’s stir fry.”

Since they met 18 years ago, CarolAnn and Bruce have had a wormery, in which composting worms – who differ from garden worms – eat and live on decaying foods. The worms turn kitchen waste into high quality compost. “We have two wormeries and put in loose tea, tea bags, coffee, all peelings, egg shells, cardboard from egg cartons, and any uncooked vegetables.

“The worms produce compost for our container-grown tomatoes and vegetables.”

It is not often that CarolAnn finds gone off items of food at the back of the fridge. “It is rare that it happens – and of it does I get really annoyed with myself.”

Look at the webiste lovefoodhatewaste.com for ways to cut food waste.