Quibans 73: Food waste

Here are excerpts from four Guardian articles, all from 2017. The original headlines are shown in bold.

Nearly half of all fresh potatoes thrown away daily by UK households

Nearly half of the edible fresh potatoes bought by UK householders each day are thrown away - 5.8 million of them per day, and at a “staggering” annual cost of £230m, figures show.

The humble spud is the second most wasted food in the UK, behind bread, according to campaign material released on Wednesday. The research was offered in support of a government campaign to encourage consumers to reduce their domestic food waste.

The UK churns out 10m tonnes of food waste a year – of which 7.3m tonnes come from households. The estimated retail value of this is £13bn, and Wrap calculates that a typical family wastes £700 of food a year.

Britons to throw away £428m worth of barbecue food in August, study reveals

It’s symbolised by dismal burgers and carbonised sausages served on paper plates with a splatter of ketchup. Yet with the great British summer well under way, Britons are this month set to throw away a staggering £428m worth of barbecue food, research reveals.

In August the nation will brave the changeable weather to enjoy nearly 12m barbecues, with people on average either hosting or attending at least two of the seasonal gatherings. The new research from supermarket chain Sainsbury’s shows that hosts typically over-cater to impress friends and family, with more than half (49.2%) putting on a larger than necessary spread.

Salad leaves, burger rolls, hot dog buns, coleslaw and potato salad are the top five food items most likely to be wasted during barbecue season, the research found, amounting to £36.47 worth of food waste at each event. The total does not include drink.

Salad days soon over: consumers throw away 40% of bagged leaves

Britons throw away 40% of the bagged salad they buy every year, according to the latest data, with 37,000 tonnes – the equivalent of 178m bags – going uneaten every year.

UK throwing away £13bn of food each year, latest figures show

An estimated 7.3m tonnes of household food waste was thrown away in 2015 – up from 7m tonnes in 2012.

UK households binned £13bn worth of food in 2015 that could have been eaten, according to new figures which suggest that progress in reducing the national food waste mountain has stalled.

Of the food thrown away, 4.4m tonnes was deemed to be “avoidable” waste that was edible at some point before it was put in the bin or food waste caddy – such as bread that goes mouldy – compared with 4.2m tonnes in 2012. The rest were scraps that could not be eaten such as meat bones, eggshells, tea bags, coffee grounds, apple cores and fruit and vegetable peelings.

That meant the average UK household wasted £470 worth of food, which went in the bin when it could have been eaten. The avoidable food waste generated 19m tonnes of greenhouse gases over its lifetime – and preventing that pollution would be equivalent to taking one in four cars off UK roads, Wrap said.



Here are some possible questions:

1. How much does one potato cost?
2. How much does a kg of food cost?
3. According to the figures in the first article, how many families are there in the UK?
4. What errors/inconsistencies are there in the articles?
5. How do the figures in the BBQ article fit together? 
6. How much does one bag of salad weigh?
7. How many bags of salad are bought each year?

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/08/nearly-half-of-all-fresh-potatoes-thrown-away-daily-by-uk-households
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/16/britons-to-throw-away-428m-worth-of-barbecue-food-in-august-study-reveals
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/24/salad-days-soon-over-consumers-throw-away-40-bagged-leaves
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/10/uk-throwing-away-13bn-of-food-each-year-latest-figures-show

Quibans 72: Academy football

From BBC Sport.  There is some Fermi estimation here alongside the usual skills.

Academy football: Zac Brunt case

There are an estimated 3,000 children aged between nine and 16 in Premier League academies, with thousands more throughout the Football League.

"Unless you're the next [Cristiano] Ronaldo, clubs don't want to pay £120,000 for a 15-year-old."  Aged 15, Zac Brunt has been part of academies at Aston Villa, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, and most recently Derby.  He spent the past two years with the Championship club's elite academy on what is commonly known as an Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) - designed to bring the best young players, the best coaches and the best environments together at an early age.

"I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere at Derby," Brunt told the BBC. "Other clubs are interested but the fee is so big. For two years work, have I cost Derby County £120,000? Probably not.  "I think this could be the end of my career. I can't go anywhere else apart from semi-professional - the highest level I can go - unless a professional team buys me out of this clause."

The Premier League and the English Football League (EFL) said the "vast majority" of young players moving between academies have compensation waived.

Why so much money?

Compensation formula for academy players when joining another club
Age group of player	Category of club academy leaving	Applicable annual fixed fee - new club to pay
U9 to U11	All Categories	£3,000
U12 to U16	Category 1	£40,000
U12 to U16	Category 2	£25,000
U12 to U16	Category 3	£12,500

The £120,000 compensation fee that any other academy must pay Derby to sign Brunt is worked out from his three-year registration at their category one academy (£40,000 + £40,000 + £40,000).

Brunt says he understands the need for a rule to protect clubs' investments, but added: "I know a few boys who have been absolutely ruined by this rule and they had to stop playing football and go and play non-league or something like that because they just can't get in anywhere.

Brunt's dad Glen says his son has been for trials with other top clubs, but the compensation fee is putting them off - comparing it to the £7,000 Derby paid Manchester City to sign the youngster themselves.

So is this an unusual case?

The Premier League and the EFL say so.  For example, from about 3,000 Premier League academy players last season, 210 left a club early and, of those, 182 (##%) had compensation rights waived. That percentage has remained above 80% for the past three years.

Questions:

1. What inconsistencies are there in the article?
2. How many children are there in each age group in each club in the premier league?
3. If Derby get £120,000 what will their percentage profit be?
4. What percentage of players leave a club early?
5. How many players from each age group leave each team early each year on average?
6. How many of these players will play premier league football?

Answers:

1. He has been at Derby for two years, but will apparently cost other clubs the equivalent of three years of payments (3 x £40,000).    Why did Derby pay £7000 for the player?  Where does that fit into the structure?
2. Slightly strangely, “Under 9s” means players who are under 9 years old at the start of the season.  By the end of the season it might be the case that all the players are actually 9 years old.  The phrase at the start of the article: “there are 3000 players aged between 9 and 16” might refer to 7 year groups or to 8.  There are 20 clubs in the premier league.  This gives about 20 players in each year group at each club (3000 / (20 x 7.5) ).
3. 120,000 / 7000 = 17.14   Subtract 1 to leave the profit and then express as a percentage: 1614%
4. 210 / 3000 = 7%.  [Also: the hashed out figure is 87%.]
5. 210 leave 20 clubs, which is 10.5 from each club.  Presumably we shouldn’t include the oldest year group (“leave the clubs early”), so divide this by 6 or 7.  It’s just under 2 per year group at each club.
6. This is interesting (and hard!).  If a club has a senior playing staff of about 30, aged between 18 and 33 then about two of them will retire each year.  Some of the other players will move abroad or to lower-league teams, but some will be replaced with players from abroad or from lower leagues.  Maybe 2 per year from the youth team making it through to each premier league squad is reasonable.  So that’s about 10% of those who are in the top year group.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41839083