Breaking the cycle of food waste

Australia wastes 7.3 million tonnes of food a year, with Australian households dumping more than half of that: about 4.1 million tonnes or around 9kg of food from every home, every week.

But for the first time, we know exactly what we waste, how it is wasted, and where it goes.

That's according to new research released as part of an Australian Research Council Linkage Project administered at CQUniversity's Appleton Institute in Adelaide, entitled 'Zeroing in on Food Waste: Measuring, understanding and reducing food waste'.

A researcher supervised by CQUniversity academics Professor Drew Dawson and Dr Kirrilly Thompson, PhD candidate Christian Reynolds has traced the cycle of food waste in a three-year study looking at the economic, environmental and psychological modelling of food waste.

Households are the worst culprits, accounting for more than half our food waste, with retail, restaurants, wholesalers and the education sector rounding out the top five.

"Now that we have identified the top food wasters, we can tailor programs to reduce food waste in each sector," Mr Reynolds, who is a University of South Australia PhD candidate, says.

"Reducing household food waste has often proven difficult because the reasons for over-purchasing are not rational," he says. "To change this behaviour, we need to understand the economic and social factors behind food purchase, preparation, recycling and disposal."

But it's not all bad news – Adelaide people are some of the most resourceful recyclers of food waste.

In Adelaide, all metropolitan councils except one now collect food waste in kerbside green wheelie bins and turn it into compost.

And some families are creatively reusing their food waste, with an average of 3.2 kg of food waste per week per household being diverted to 'informal disposal', such as backyard composting or pet chickens.

Mr Reynolds' research is part of a comprehensive three-year Australian Research Council (ARC) project, which began in 2010 and has undertaken economic, environmental and psychological modelling of food wastage in South Australia.

The breakdown of food waste from farm to beyond the household is estimated using an economic modelling technique known as input-output material flow analysis, which allowed tracing of food wastage throughout the supply chain.

Mr Reynolds based his initial figures on the National Waste Report 2010, which was produced by the intergovernmental Environment Protection and Heritage Council.

This work was part of a collaboration between UniSA, CQUniversity and Flinders University, with funding from the Local Government Association of SA and Zero Waste SA together with the Australian Research Council.

Read more about the project at: http://bit.ly/1exGvm9

Mr Reynolds is one of 12 early-career scientists unveiling their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government through the Inspiring Australia initiative.