Each year, Australians waste on average 7.6 million tonnes of food, one in five shopping bags, or approx 312kgs per person. Equivalent to $2000 – $2500 per year. The amount of land used to grow the food that we waste, is larger than the size of Victoria. The water used is over 2600 gigalitres, equivalent to 5 Sydney Harbours. Throwing away a single Hamburger is the equivalent to the water wasted by having a 90 minute shower. Often this issue is overlooked, as the scale of it is hard to conceive. Food waste also contributes to food insecurity in Australia. According to the 2018 Foodbank Hunger report, more than 18% of Australians, and 1 in 5 children, suffer from food insecurity. Reducing food waste in your own home can significantly assist in preventing those less fortunate from going hungry. This was noticeable during the first stages of the Covid pandemic, as supermarket shelves were stripped bare, as people with means stockpiled groceries, those living meal to meal, were left with slim pickings, while at the same time, food waste during this period in Australia peaked to its highest levels.
Here are some handy solutions to reduce your waste, and the impact that has on the environment.
Worms
Did you know that worms can break down 95% of the food scraps they eat? Meaning 1 tonne of food waste, is turned into 50 kgs of rich, organic, worm castings, perfect for your garden beds. This is both beneficial for you, but also reduces the impact of over consumption and waste.
Worms are not fussy eaters. They love all the same things we do, and they don’t mind eating the skin of the Feijoa, or the end bits of the Carrot, or the core of the Apple.
Easy to set up and care for, a productive worm farm of just 2000 worms, can easily process the food waste of a small family. Worms don’t love all foods though, so make sure you feed them with things they love, and save your citrus peel, and garlic, onion and meat scraps for your Bokashi, or compost.
Bokashi
Bokashi is a two bucket composting system, first conceived in Japan. The addition of a Bokashi bran, a granular material containing good bacteria, works to decompose and pickle your compost. The eventual product is then buried in your garden, to improve soil structure, and boost nutrients and improve growth of your plants. Becoming popular in Australia over the past few years, this is a very convenient system for a small household, or apartment. The addition of the Bokashi bran helps eliminate odours as well as breaking down the material. It is all contained within the two small containers, and can be kept indoors.
Compost
A favourite amongst gardeners, compost is a crucial ingredient for having strong healthy plant growth, as well as ameliorating all types of deficient soils. Compost helps break down clay soil, by adding aerated organic material in between the tightly bound molecules of clay. In sandy soil, adding compost can help retain moisture, nutrients, and create viability in otherwise hostile conditions for growing.
A fantastic homegrown compost solution is Zoogro. Made in Melbourne from all the organic waste that is created by the Melbourne Zoo. This includes not only the waste of all the exotic and native animals on site, but also the food scraps left over from feeding them, as well as the humans that come to see them. Melbourne Zoo is proudly a zero waste facility. Not a single piece of organic material leaves the site as waste. Their sophisticated system composts over 2 tonnes of material per day.
Making your own compost at home is a very easy process, setting aside an area in your garden for a hot compost pile, or even a compost bin, buried, or discreetly placed under a tree, can quickly reduce your kitchen scraps, into a viable, mineral rich additive for your garden beds.
Chickens
There are so many benefits to keeping chickens. Apart from their warm companionship, they also turn your food waste into organic, protein rich eggs. They minimise weeds in your garden, provide pest control, as well as providing a reason for kids to get out and about in the garden.
Evidence of chicken domestication dates back nearly 10,000 years. Although, it is believed that for the first 7,800 years, our relationship with them only involved the collection of eggs, and the chickens themselves, were not consumed. Currently, chickens outnumber humans nearly 3 to 1. Check with your local council before committing to building a coop though, as some areas have restrictions on the amount and placement of chickens within more densely populated urban areas.
Grow Your Own
Growing your own herbs for example, is probably the most direct way to reduce your food waste. Recipes hardly ever call for an entire bunch of parsley or rosemary, but rather a sprig. Unfortunately, this is often how they are packaged, as well as being wrapped in plastic for protection, and held together with a rubber band. Growing your own, affords you the opportunity to minimise your food waste, budget waste, as well as providing organic and fresh herbs, right when you need them, and at the same time, eliminating the plastic waste created from food packaging.
Window Box herb gardens are very achievable, even in a high rise apartment. Herbs take up such little space, and are often fast growing, and high yield. As well as providing a lovely green splash to your windowsill, a homegrown herb always tastes better.
Preserve
Often when a backyard fruit tree has a good year, a small household will struggle to get through the abundant harvest before it spoils. Stewed fruit is a fantastic solution. Pickled vegetables, preserved lemons, frozen juices, dehydrated fruit pieces, all are also inexpensive and productive solutions to food waste, and allow you to enjoy your favourites all year round.
The impact of the individual can mean a great deal to the overall reduction in waste. As we move forward as a nation to reduce our carbon emissions and waste mismanagement, we can all help contribute by minimising our own wasteful practices. Next time you’re at the supermarket, think about what you’re personally doing to reduce waste, and feel good knowing you’re doing your part to solve this global problem.
