food waste

Avoiding Food Waste FAQs​

One of the hot topics in the sustainability world, food waste plays a large role in our daily lives. Whether it’s bits and pieces left over from meal prepping, or tossing that dodgy looking banana, you may be contributing more than you realise to one of society’s biggest problems.

We take a closer look at what’s been going into our bins, to see whether we can help fight this needless waste.

What is food waste, technically?

Letting food go to waste, misuse (or no use) of leftover food, and also buying food unnecessarily are all things which contribute to the food waste phenomenon.

According to the Australian Government, 30 per cent of the food we buy goes to waste. That’s right, a third of our nation’s groceries are being thrown out the proverbial window. Not only is it a huge waste of money for families across the country, but it’s also a putting a totally unnecessary strain on the environment.

What sort of effect does food waste have?

This waste effects both Australian households as well as our environment. According to Western Australia’s FOODcents program, our uneaten food is costing the country $5.2 billion each year, of which $1.1 million is fruit and vegetables alone.

FOODcents also notes that interestingly it is smaller households which tend to waste the most food, whether due to cooking overly large portions, or letting food go past its use-by date or even forgetting the food tucked away in the deepest corners of the fridge.

“Every time we throw food into the bin we’re wasting our money and also discarding the vast amounts of resources, energy and water that it took to produce, process, store, refrigerate, transport and cook our food,” reports the Department of Industry and Science.

How can we reduce our food waste?

Far from being unsolvable, food waste in your home can be greatly reduced by incorporating some more environmentally friendly habits. To handle the issue of disposable food packing, aim to buy loose produce which you can stow in your Onya produce bags.

Shopping wisely could not only save you money, but cut also cut down your household food waste. So before you go whipping out your reusable shopping bags, always check what you have in the pantry to avoid picking up extra food “just in case” you think you’ve run out of something.

Freezing left overs as well as composting are also great ways to ensure any food which can’t be used goes to a better home than your local landfill.

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