How Much Food Do You Think You Throw Away Every Year?

Food Waste

How much food do you think you throw away every year? The average household throws out approximately $2,200 worth of food each year – that's roughly equivalent to the annual cost of registering and insuring your car.

Food waste is not only a waste of money, it’s also having a growing impact on our natural environment. 

What’s in your bin?

Each year in Victoria, we throw out 250,000 tonnes worth of food – which is more than enough wasted food to fill the Eureka Tower

Why do we waste food?

  • We forget about food we have in the fridge or freezer
  • We don't check the cupboard or fridge before going shopping
  • We're not planning our meals and menus as much as we could
  • We don’t get to use our food before the use-by or best before dates
  • We buy or cook more than we need
  • We don't know how to use leftovers

The impact on our environment

Wasting food wastes the energy, water and natural resources used to grow, package, transport and market that food.

Did you know scraping your leftovers into the bin contributes directly to climate change?

When wasted food is thrown away and breaks down in landfill, together with other organic materials, it becomes the main contributor to the generation of methane – a gas 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

We can all make a real contribution to tackling climate change and living more sustainability by wasting less food.

Here are some quick tips on how you can avoid wasting food:

  • Prepare a weekly menu plan, write a shopping list and stick to it!
  • Check your cupboards and know what you have before going grocery shopping.
  • Measure and prepare correct serving sizes.
  • Eat leftovers the next day, or freeze them for another day!
  • Make soups or stews with wilted vegetables. Juice blemished fruits.
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