Food waste is a massive issue that happens in Australia, and is continuing to grow. Over 5 million tons of food is wasted just alone in Australia. On average $3’800 per year is thrown out per household, food waste is killing wildlife believe it or not. Due to the fact food waste produces methane, methane is a very powerful gas. Food waste cost Australian economy $20 billion a year. In the whole world 1 in 3 of all food is lost and wasted nearly costing the economy 1 trillion dollars. Food waste is contributing hugely to climate change and global warming, in fact 8% of greenhouse gasses heating the earth is from food waste.
Why Do We Need to Address the Problem of Food Waste?
Food wasted needs to be addressed now since it is causing many environmental problems and financial issues. When food waste enters landfill and becomes a greenhouse gas called methane which is very unhealthy for people and animals. Food that goes to waste uses 24% of Australia's freshwater. Also uses up ​28 million tons of fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture. Food waste has a huge impact towards economic, as they drive up food prices making food less affordable for the less fortunate limiting the chance of affording the healthy foods they need. Food waste is a lost opportunity when it comes towards feeding the homeless as well. The gas food waste lets of is methane, methane is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
What Innovative Things Are Businesses Currently Doing to Limit Food Waste?
All though food waste is a massive issue there can be many innovative things people and businesses can do and are currently doing to reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill. Some food businesses are taking food waste and making it into a product, for example, Barnana are taking rejected bananas and making them into nutritious snacks. Some of their snacks they are producing are Chewy Banana Bites and Banana Brittle. There can be many reduction strategies in place to reduce food waste, some being: take a shopping list, cook only what you need, freeze more and many more. Households can make sure they put garden and kitchen organic waste in the green bin and keep track of what they throw out.
What Government Strategies, Federal and State Are in Place to Reduce Food Waste?
The government, federal and state have little but some strategies to reduce food waste. The Australian government has a strategy in place to halve Australia's food waste by 2030. The strategy by following Sustainable Development Goal 12—ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. The government has also developed national waste policy. There are food waste bins as well, for example, the green bin putting garden and kitchen scraps in it can reduce food race.
Conclusion
Food waste is a massive issue that is happening in Australia and across the whole world. It is causing many issues in different matters, being environmental and financial. There can be many ways to reduce it from household to government. Business is starting to reduce food waste by using the food waste and making new products. Come on Australia and do something about food waste.
References
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www.energy.gov.au. (2019). ​energy.gov.au​. [online]. Available at: https://www.energy.gov.au/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].
www.forbes.com. (2019). ​What Environmental Problems Does Wasting Food Cause?​ [online]. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/07/18/what-environmental-problems-does-wasting-food-cause/#380303222f7a [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].
PreScouter. (2019). ​PreScouter - Custom Intelligence from a Global Network of Experts​. [online]. Available at: https://www.prescouter.com/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].
wwf.org.au. (2019). ​WWF - Reducing Food Waste​. [online] Available at: https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/food/reducing-food-waste [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].