British households are pouring £470 million worth of wine down the plughole every year.

The figure has been collated for the Waste & Resource Action Programme (Wrap), advisers to the Government, which is urging people to freeze leftover wine and use it in cooking sauces and casseroles as part of the campaign to cut the nation’s carbon footprint.

Latest data shows that 1.8 million tonnes of food and drink from households end up in sewers, of which some 1.5 million tonnes of waste, valued at £2.7 billion, could have been avoided through better storage or planning.

It seems that most people cannot be bothered to finish off bottles or cartons of drink and tip the remainder down the sink instead of storing it in the fridge.

According to diaries kept by 319 households across the country the most wasted drink is milk, followed by fizzy soft drinks and then fruit juices and smoothies. Together they account for almost half of all avoidable waste by households.

Even making a cup of tea is producing lots of waste. Households admit to throwing whole pots of tea away. Avoiding this would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 4.6 million tonnes.

Some of the waste is through drinks going off or past their “use by” dates, but a large part is from juice or alcohol being poured into a glass and left unfinished, and the dregs then being discarded.

The analysis shows that the cost of waste food and liquid in the average household has risen to £50 a month, a significant increase on the £35 a month calculated in last year’s report.

The amount of drink wasted in families with children is even higher, with an average cost of £56.60 a month, up from £50 a month last year.

Wrap, which previously campaigned against “buy one, get one free” promotions to cut down on food waste, is now anxious to find strategies to curb the amount of drinks being poured down the drain. It says that smaller cartons and greater use of half bottles and cans may help to reduce waste.

Richard Swannell, director of retail at Wrap, said: “There does not seem to be any incentive for people to save and store small quantities of liquid, whether it is milk or juice. They just tip it away.

“It is possible, too, with fizzy soft drinks and bottled water that people are allowing them to go flat.”

In almost all cases of drinks waste, the research found that households served too much, or with liquids such as custard and soup, simply made too much.

“We need to encourage people to use up leftover liquids in the same ways as food. It is perfectly acceptable to freeze and reuse custard and soup,” Mr Swannell said.

A Wrap spokeswoman said that the organisation was not suggesting that consumers should drink wine that had been defrosted, but said that leftovers could easily be used for cooking. Many cooks pour dregs from bottles into ice cube trays so they can easily freeze them for use in sauces.

Jasper Morris, master of wine at the leading merchants Berry Bros & Rudd, said: “If you know you’re not going to drink a full bottle when you open it, the best thing is to decant half into a smaller container. You can keep a few half bottles for this purpose and just wash them over again.”

He said that the decanting should be done as soon as the full bottle was opened and then it should be sealed with a screw cap to prevent oxygen getting into the wine.

“The wine should be fine for at least a week, if not longer. The other option is to keep a bottle and use it over two or three nights.

“The best thing is to stop up the bottle and keep it in the fridge, whether it’s red or white. It slows down the process of the wine going off. If it’s a red wine you just leave it to warm at room temperature for about ten minutes before drinking.”

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