Aussies wasting 9kg of food a week: Study
Adelaide researchers have revealed Australian households each waste a whopping nine kilograms of food a week – collectively outstripping what is thrown out at supermarkets and restaurants.
The three-year study tracked shopping, food consumption and wastage and found households ditch 4,000,000 tonnes of food a year.
That is more than half of the nation’s total food wastage, and shows families toss out more than restaurants, shops, and supermarkets combined.
Researchers blame busy lives and marketing.
“But on get on frees, where you are actually buying double the amount, even though you don’t use it, and so you’re throwing it out in the end,” researcher Christian Reynolds said.
He said doing the right thing saves money, the environment and generates jobs.
Researchers said every tone of waste sent to landfill generates just $2 in economic activity.
But that leaps to $40 if that same tone is composted instead.
The Cirocco family at Athelstone does its part.
They grow their own produce, recycle and compost, and throw meat scrap and bones into the council’s green waste bins.
“My wife does a lot of planning, she’s very thrifty with what’s in the garden,” Luigi Cirocco said.
“We eat seasonally and that helps with the food bill.”
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