We are edging closer to the festive season and after a year of varying degrees of isolation, the celebrations with family and friends will be a big part of our lives this year. Celebration involves generous food and that generally means generous waste. We waste around 7.3 million or 5 million tonnes of food each year dependent upon who is reporting and dependent upon how you measure the waste, it costs the economy around $20 billion. A Rabo Bank study in 2019 confirmed that on average we waste 300kg of food a year each - the highest figure in the world - double some nations and triple others.
The food we waste annually is enough to fill 9,000 Olympic sized swimming pools. 35% of the average household bin is food waste. One in five shopping bags end up in the bin. The money spent on wasted groceries is $3,800 per household each year. And at the same time, over 710,000 people rely on food relief each month. The irony is that we have more than enough food for everyone if the food we waste simply went to those who needed it.
We are spoilt for options on ways to better manage our food. BeEco sent us a tipsheet this week that has some fantastic tips on becoming a food un-waster:
Images: Unsplash | Brooke Lark / Ola Mishchenko