In data collated by Rabo Bank, while we’re getting better at wasting less food each year, we still wasted a whopping $8.9 billion worth of food in 2018. That is 298kg of food wasted, per person per year. And it turns out that we Aussies are the biggest wasters of food in the world, even ahead of USA. For perspective, in 2017, the country who wastes the least, according to Magnet, is Greece, at just 44kg per head per year. The French waste 106kg, the Canadians 123kg, the Italians 145kg and the Japanese, 157kg. We are even way ahead of the North Americans, who waste 278kg per year. In addition to the negative impact it’s having on our back pocket, our food waste behaviours are really messing with the planet - at pretty much every point of the food and delivery chain. The worst food wasters toss out around $3,500 of food each year, while zero wasters would barely waste $20.It's not just about the starving children our mothers reminded us of - and it's not just left over dinner. We are so disposable that 1/4 of our food never gets to a plate. The problem is that wasting food wastes everything. Cleared land, water, fertiliser, storage, labour, money, travel miles, emissions, bees, time, love and it unnecessarily adds chemicals and landfill, which then creates impacts of it's own. From the time and resources taken to grow and make the food, right through to its disposal of the food, the cost of a packet of cut veggies. If wasted food were a country, it would be the 3rd largest contributor to climate change. We clear 6 soccer fields every minute to grow food we don't eat and use 4,400 times the volume of water in Sydney Harbour to grow food we waste. With the current rate of land clearance, 28,000 animal species will be extinct in the next 25 years. (Domesticated animals, according to David Attenborough are 96% of the animals on earth already.)
Rabobank publishes an annual food report based on data they gather from different sources and while we are doing a whole heap better, Australia ranks globally as the 4th biggest food waster per capita in the world.
It turns out that Baby Boomers waste the least amount of food - half as much as Millennials and Gen Z and Tasmania and the NT are the best states.
Wasting less is very simple. Never shop without a list, check your fridge before you write a list, don't over order takeaway and eat your leftovers. It really is that simple, but you do need SELF CONTROL.
Don't make a list then ignore it when you get to the supermarket and chips are cheap. If you forget to check the fridge before you go shopping, go right back home or at least only buy what you are absolutely sure you need. Never shop hungry. It blinds your self control. Plan what you are going to do with left overs or freeze them immediately. (Get into the habit of making more than you need with freezable dishes like curries. Then you have a takeaway right there in your freezer next time you don't feel like cooking.)