Second life for Aussie food waste
In line with the UN’s International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction (29 September), research from End Food Waste Australia’s national campaign, The Great Unwaste, has revealed the hidden cost of food waste — Australians are discarding enough food each year to equal their annual electricity bill.
The average household throws out around $2500 worth of food each year, the equivalent of an annual electricity bill. Nationally that adds up to 7.6 million tonnes of food, working out to 256 kg per person, or 3–4 shopping trolleys full of groceries, with roughly half still perfectly edible.
“Australians have a vital and individual role to play in tackling the staggering financial and environmental cost of food waste. If every household did this and stopped food waste for just one day, we could save 5000 tonnes of food from going to landfill and put $53 million back into the Australian economy,” said Tristan Butt, CEO of End Food Waste Australia and The Great Unwaste.
A national survey of over 2500 respondents highlighted that Australians are starting to understand the part they can play in reducing food waste. Nine out of 10 (90%) agree we all have a responsibility to reduce food waste, while nearly three-quarters (72%) agreed that cutting down on uneaten food is important.
What’s more, nearly one in two Australians (48%) feel their household could do more to reduce food waste — highlighting the opportunity to take action.
To show Australians just how simple it can be to reduce food waste, the first ever National Great Unwaste Day is being held on 29 September — a nationwide invitation to ‘Join the Leftovers Revolution’.
The Great Unwaste is encouraging families, workplaces, schools and communities to give food a second life in a range of ways — from hosting a leftovers lunch and discovering recipes that transform forgotten ingredients into crowd-pleasers, to simply starting a conversation about reducing waste.
The Great Unwaste is supported with funding from the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
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