EPA12/0946
Love Food Hate Waste
Food waste avoidance in NSW
Contents
This presentation provides
essential background to the
Love Food Hate Waste
campaign.
The following slides cover:
–
–
–
–
–
The food waste issue
The costs of food waste
Why we waste food
Who is wasting food
Program resources
Food waste – what is the issue?
• In NSW alone, 1.2 million tonnes
of food is sent to landfill annually
• 800,000 tonnes of this is from
households while another 400,000
tonnes is from business
• Food is the largest component
of household waste
• More than one third of the
average household garbage bin is
filled with food waste each week
Environmental costs of food waste
• When food waste breaks down in
landfill it produces methane - a
greenhouse gas 25 times more
potent than carbon dioxide
• The food supply chain generates
23 per cent of Australia’s total
Greenhouse Gas emissions
(Garnaut, 2007), second only to
power stations
• When food is wasted the natural
resources, nutrients, energy and
water invested by the supply chain
are lost/wasted
Financial costs of food waste
•
NSW households throw away
$2.5 billion worth of edible food
each year
•
Fresh food ($848M) and
leftovers ($694M) are thrown
away in greatest quantities
•
Each NSW household throws
away more than $1,000 worth of
edible food each year
•
Up to 60% of food waste may be
potentially ‘avoidable’ (WRAP,
2008)
Avoidable versus unavoidable
Love Food Hate Waste focuses on reducing the amount of avoidable
food waste being thrown away
Avoidable food waste is:
Food that could have been eaten but instead was thrown away.
It was wasted because we:
• forgot about leftovers
• made unnecessary purchases
• over catered
• did not store food correctly.
Unavoidable food waste is:
Food that is not usually eaten such as:
• eggs shells
• meat bones
• teabags
• fruit & vegetable peelings.
Why do we waste food in NSW?
Buy too much
• Not planning meals in advance
• Not shopping to a list
• Not checking the cupboard, fridge or
freezer before going shopping
• Tempted by ‘2 for 1’ specials and deals in
store
Cook too much
• Desire to have more than not enough
• Serving incorrect portion sizes
• Family members don’t finish their meals
Poor storage of food
• Forgetting about food and leftovers in the
fridge/freezer
• Unsure how to store food effectively
• Leaving food in its original packaging
Who is wasting food in NSW?
While we know that everyone
wastes food, there are three
groups that waste more than the
average. These groups are:
• 18 – 24 year olds
• High income households
• Families with children.
These are the primary LFHW
target audience.
The target audience
Target audience attitudes and behaviours
Key Love Food Hate Waste Messages
18-24 year olds
• Despite high level knowledge about food waste, less likely to engage in
food waste avoidance behaviours
• Feel that a busy lifestyle makes it hard to avoid wasting food
• Are more likely to throw out food without checking if it’s consumable,
such as leftovers and unopened packaged food past the best before date
• Tend to buy in bulk and buy value deals even if it is more than needed
• Wasting the most food in volume and in dollars
• Meal planning can be flexible and will save you
money
• Food is still safe to eat past its best before date
as long as it has been stored correctly and not
damaged
•18- 24 year olds express concern for the
amount of food wasted
High income households
• Often cook separate meals for family members. They prefer to make
more just in case and are less likely to consider portion sizes
• Rarely purchase food according to a budget or list and are quick to
throw out fresh food
• Would prefer to use leftover food for other meals.
• Meal planning can be flexible
• Consider portion sizes when cooking
• Over half indicate a willingness to attend a
‘kitchen skills’ workshop to reduce their food
waste, and they are quite concerned about
environmental problems in general.
Families with children
• are likely to do one large shop where they frequently purchase items on
special and in bulk
• 47% buy food on special ‘most times’ or ‘always’
• are less likely to check best before and use by dates when shopping
• one in five families with children already have a compost or worm farm,
and those that do not are more willing to start one
• find it harder than other households to make meals from assorted
ingredients that need using up.
• ensure effective storage for bulk and special
purchases and encourage new behaviours like
measuring portion sizes.
• they are more likely to plan a weekly menu, and
most are quite willing to start writing a shopping
list based on a menu plan.
• In terms of reducing food waste, they are willing
to stop buying unnecessary fresh produce.
CALD community
• Social research shows that
culturally and linguistically diverse
communities also have high levels
of food waste
• Each cultural group has different
attitudes and behaviours around
food and food management
• Understanding this can help inform
the design and delivery of your
programs and communications.
Resources available to partners
• Love Food Hate Waste resources
have positive and proven results
with raising awareness about the
food waste issue.
• All resources have the same look
and feel to maintain brand and
message consistency.
• Partners are strongly urged to
make use of the Love Food Hate
Waste resources to gain maximum
benefit for their local education
projects.
What resources are available?
Website
Contains plenty of useful information as well as YouTube clips, recipes and a
serving size calculator
Style guide
Helps you develop Love Food Hate Waste resources
Posters
Great tool for engagement and catching attention
Menu planner
Great resource to provide to people to encourage behaviour change
Fact sheets
Provide information about why we waste food
Brochures
Provide an overview of the program
Pull-up banners
Can be used at events and are great for catching attention
Artwork
We have artwork available for aprons, shopping bags and magnets
Red lid bin sticker
To illustrate the proportion of different types of waste in the average NSW
household bin
Can I tailor the resources?
Partners are invited to tailor the resources. Any
modifications will need to be reviewed by the EPA.
The basic requirements are:
• The NSW EPA and Love Food Hate Waste
logos to be placed on the left
• Partner logos must be 75% the height of the
LFHW logo
• Website and tagline are to be included
• Images and logos are used correctly.
See the Style Guide for a full list of requirements