Food Waste Reduction Workshops: Preparation - First Steps.

In a bid to help individuals and families save time, money and food, a digital workshop series has been produced. The eleven food waste reduction workshops will guide participants through: meal planning, low waste shopping, maximising food freshness by storing food correctly in the fridge, freezer and pantry, low waste cooking, using up commonly wasted ingredients, preserving, and ways to recycle unavoidable food waste so that it doesn’t end up in landfill.

Funded by the Local Government Program of Barwon South West Waste and Resource Recovery Group, the project is a collaboration with many in-kind contributors. Special thanks to Camperdown Community House for providing video hosting and participant support.

A 2018 kerbside bin audit found that Barwon South West households throw away an average of 3kg of food every week! Over 99% of this material ends up in landfill. Food waste sent to landfill does not compost. It breaks down without oxygen, creating greenhouse gases. That’s bad for the environment and a waste of valuable resources.
 

 
Globally, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted each year. That’s about one third of all the food produced for human consumption.

Food waste is both a financial and environmental issue. In Victoria, each year it costs us $6 billion made up of lost product value and disposal fees, creates 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, wastes 29 billion litres of water.

According to The Path to Half report published by Sustainability Victoria 2020, the top six to fix wasted foods are:  Meat, Cheese, Milk, Tomatoes, Bread and Apples