WE’RE all probably as guilty as each other when it comes to this particular issue.
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Australians spend more than $106 billion on food and beverages each year.
But then, every year in NSW, households throw out $2.5 billion worth of food, or about $1000 per household.
Truly staggering isn’t it, when so many more people, and a lot of them are children, go hungry every day?
And hard to believe too, when every dollar counts.
Food waste is classified as food that is thrown in the bin, fed to pets, or composted. Maybe it’s because we bought too much, cooked too much or didn’t store it correctly.
When it comes to businesses, it’s food that’s passed its used by/sell by date, damaged stock, waste which is the result of poor food handling or preparation, or incorrect portion sizes.
But one program is working hard to reduce the waste.
The “Love Food, Hate Waste” program is aimed at raising awareness of the amount of food waste from households and businesses.
Research shows that’s about 800,000 tonnes of food waste which ends up in landfill from households and 170,000 tonnes from businesses.
Councils and organisations that have projects that can be completed by June 30 next year are being invited to apply for funding under the program, which is part of a state-wide strategy to divert 75 per cent of all waste from landfill by 2021.
A commendable target.
There’s $470,000 in total, which is available to local councils, NGO’s and community groups, with applications for this round of funding closing on June 14.
It’s about giving us all the skills and knowledge to change our wicked food ways and by making a few simple changes to the way we buy and prepare food at home and at work, we can all make a big difference to the environment.