FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Stale bread, leftovers, vegies… the volume of food we all throw out every day is having a bigger impact than you may realise.

According to recent research by Zero Waste Scotland, food waste actually has a bigger impact on climate change than plastic. The government-funded body has found that 456,000 tonnes of food waste was collected in one year in Scotland. The food waste ends up in landfill, where it rots and produces methane gas. This gas then traps heat in the atmosphere, leading to climate change. The United Nations reports that methane is highly problematic, as its impact is 34 times greater than the other greenhouse gas – carbon dioxide – over a 100-year period. Iain Gulland, chief executive of Zero Waste, says: “It might seem bizarre, but scraping that leftover lasagne, mince or salad from your plate into the bin is seriously damaging the planet, because when those scraps of pasta and lettuce which you never got around to eating end up in landfill, they rot… As they break down, they emit methane.” In response to the report, Zero Waste Scotland, together with the Scottish government, has launched a Food Waste Reduction Action Plan to reduce food waste by a third by 2025. They recommend steps such as planning meals, making better use of storage and being inventive with leftovers. In Australia, according to Oz Harvest, more than five million tonnes of food ends up in landfill each year, and the government estimates that food waste costs the economy $20 billion annually. The most wasted foods in Australia are bread, bananas, bagged lettuce and salad, meat and milk.