Saturday, March 03, 2018

Capitalist Waste

Australians waste up to 20% of everything they buy, according to FoodWise - that is $8bn worth of edible food.
1600 litres of water is needed to grow just one kilo of wheat in Australia – discard the bread that wheat turns into, and that water has been spent for nothing.
Rotting food in landfills gives off greenhouse gases, further harming the environment. Mixed with other junk in landfill, rotting food is starved of oxygen and so creates methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon pollution from car exhausts.
40% of Australia’s edible fruit and vegetables are rejected before they even reach the shops, just because they’re a bit wonky or blemished.
Each year, Aussie households throw away 345kg of food – almost a kilogram a day – wasting an average $1036 of food per family each year. The worst offenders are 18- to 24-year-olds, families with children, and households bringing in more than $100,000 a year. Food gets binned because we shop for things we don’t need, cook too much food, fail to use leftovers and buy takeaway even when the fridge is full. When rotting food is composted or run through a worm farm, food waste turns into vital nutrients crucial to a healthy garden

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