28 April 2023
Media: NZME (Rotorua Daily Post and BOP Times)
Topic: Food waste and tips to reduce food waste
Enquiry
I'm working on a series of articles aimed at helping people to fight the cost of living and save money wherever possible.
One of the areas I am exploring is food waste, an issue that affects many households in our community. I'm reaching out in the hope that you can help me shed some light on the problem.
I got the idea from this story from The Guardian: Food waste: are you throwing your money in the bin?
I am keen to investigate how much food waste is disposed of in our area and what the cost of this waste is. I am also interested in finding out whether there are any council or local initiatives or programmes that are helping people to avoid binning uneaten food. I'm hoping we can raise awareness of this issue and help people to save money and reduce waste.
I would be grateful if you could provide me with any relevant figures or information that you may have on this topic. I would also be interested in speaking to someone from the council who has knowledge or experience with food waste and who could offer advice to people in our community on how to avoid binning uneaten food.
Response
We provided the following information:
Food waste in Rotorua
- In Rotorua, we are collecting an average of 84 tonnes of food/kitchen waste per week, this equates to approximately 157kg per household per year. This data is from kerbside bins only; it does not include commercial food waste, public litter bins or other food waste taken directly to transfer stations or collected by other private providers for disposal.
- Common reasons we waste food include: buying too much, cooking too much, not eating leftovers, not storing food correctly (Love Food Hate Waste), and misinterpreting best before dates as an indicator of food safety (e.g. Confusion around 'best before' dates leads to tonnes of food wastage every year | Stuff.co.nz).
- Food waste can be avoided by attending to these things, e.g:
- Planning meals and shopping to a strict list
- Measuring proportions carefully when cooking
- Storing food quickly and appropriately to optimise life as an edible
- Using leftovers before preparing new meals
- Upskilling in the difference between ‘use by’ and ‘best before’, eating best before products after their date has passed rather than throwing them away
- Composting food and garden waste (using bokashi for harder to compost items like meat, pasta, dairy and breads), and/or keeping chickens to eat scraps.
Costs of food waste
- Disposal of our food/kitchen waste in Rotorua will cost approximately $931,000 (excluding GST) over the next financial year.
- Love Food Hate Waste estimates the value of food waste per household at approximately $1,520 per year. This would equate to an estimated total value of $40,290,000 per year.
- The more food we waste, the more we need to produce. Deforestation for food production, for example, continues even though we already make enough to feed the world. 25% of all fresh water and 300 million barrels of oil are consumed each year making food that goes to waste (Love Food Hate Waste).
- The total emissions from food waste in the Rotorua district per year is equivalent to the emissions from driving the length of New Zealand 4,500 times.
Local initiatives to reduce food waste include:
- Home composting workshops, provided by Rotorua Lakes Council and other providers (composting, bokashi, worm farming). These are free to attend – check out Rotorua Nui for upcoming dates
- Love Food Hate Waste – a great website with information resources, recipes, and tips to reduce food waste
- Food rescue groups e.g. Rotorua Whakaora, Love Soup
- Pātaka Kai, community food pantries, online community groups
- Crop swaps e.g. Linton Park Community Centre, online crop swap groups.
For more tips and information to reduce your personal or household footprint, check out the Rotorua Lakes Council website: How you can help - Rotorua Lakes Council.