Food Waste – a growing problem

Every time you eat out at a restaurant, cook a meal at home or buy takeaway, a colossal amount of food waste is generated.  When you add it all together, Australians throw out over three million tonnes of food every year – which is equivalent to 145 kilograms per person. And the financial cost of this waste is costing approximately $6 billion per year.  It’s obscene considering hundreds of millions of people around the world go to bed hungry or are starving for the most basic of foods. In Australia one million children go to school without breakfast or dinner every day.

The two main reasons for food wastage are that people cook or prepare too much or don’t use food before its use-by date.  While estimates vary, up to half the domestic garbage stream which ends up at landfill is made up of food waste. Once this waste ends up in landfill, it creates more pollution in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. In the 2006 Australian Greenhouse Gas Inventory report it states that methane emissions from solid waste disposal were equivalent to 13.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.  When food is wasted, it also means the energy and water required to produce that food is wasted. According to CSIRO data, dumping a kilogram of beef wastes the 50,000 litres of water, throwing out a kilogram of white rice will waste 2,385 litres and wasting a kilogram of potatoes costs 500 litres.

There are many things people can do reduce the amount of food waste they produce, while leftover food waste can be turned into a valuable resource instead of fermenting and causing methane emissions in landfill. Worms love leftovers and at Organic Waste Solutions we are striving to ensure more of this food waste is diverted from landfill. Visit the Foodwise website for tips on how to reduce your food waste.