NZ bins $872m of food yearly
Whole loaves of bread, unopened yoghurts and uneaten pieces of fruit are just some of the edible food items found in Nelsonians’ rubbish bins.
The edible rubbish was uncovered in a national study Nelson City and Tasman District councils were involved in, surveying exactly what food New Zealanders were tossing in the trash.
The study surveyed 1365 people and 1402 rubbish bins nationwide and discovered the average New Zealand family throws away more than $563 worth of edible food each year.
That’s a total of $872 million worth, enough money to provide all school-aged children with lunch for three years.
The biggest binned item was bread, with 20 million grainy loaves discarded each year. Also coming in high on the list were potatoes, chicken, oranges, apples, lettuce and pumpkin.
In Nelson and Tasman, 19 families were chosen to take part in a kitchen diary project where they had to record all their food waste in a week. An average of 3.3kg of edible food was binned by each family during the week.
Nelson city councillor Gaile Noonan said the amount of food thrown away was not unexpected – what was surprising was the condition of the food.
‘‘We have known for some time that over 30 per cent of the rubbish placed into kerbside collections is food waste. What did come as a surprise was the amount of food that’s being thrown away which is still edible.’’
The results of the survey showed 27 per cent of households admit to being large food wasters, throwing out more than $21 worth of edible food a week and 38 per cent admit to wasting $8 a week.
Tasman district councillor Judene Edgar said it was surprising that only 10 per cent of households said they wasted no edible food at all.
‘‘This is not just about the waste of food, it is also about the time and expense to manage the waste. While predominantly organic, it is still 30 per cent of waste that does not need to be transported to or managed within a landfill.’’
She said minimising food waste had benefits beyond keeping money in the wallet.
The amount of edible food wasted each year nationally results in 325,975 tonnes of CO emissions. Eliminating that would be the same as taking 118,107 cars off the road for a year or planting 130,390 trees.
Noonan said it was important people knew how to use ageing food and recommended storing it in the freezer. She said people shouldn’t let bruises and marks put them off, and older fruits were perfect for smoothies.
Other tips for storing and using food include keeping it in the fridge or freezer as opposed to the countertop, stewing leftover fruit, checking the fridge before shopping to see what needs using up and turning leftover vegetables into a frittata or fried rice. The ascent up Angelus Peak in the Nelson Lakes National Park marked a milestone for endurance athlete Mal Law, who has clocked up 1000 kilometres on foot since beginning the High Five-0 challenge just over a month ago.
He has covered some tough terrain during the mountain marathon challenge, but the climb up Angelus Peak yesterday, on day 33 of the challenge, was expected to be one of the hardest, with a 2000-metre climb that took almost 12 hours to complete.
As part of the High Five-0 challenge, Law is attempting to scale 50 peaks and run the equivalent of 50 off-road marathons over 50 consecutive days in a bid to raise money for the Mental Health Foundation.
Today, on day 34, he will reach the summit of Mt McRae, climbing up to the Parachute Rocks and along the ridge of the St Arnaud range before heading south along untracked terrain before descending down into the Woolshed Flats.
Law ran through the region last month, traversing Dun Mountain in Nelson, Mt Arthur, Mt Gibbs and Mt Patriarch in the Kahurangi National Park during the first week of the challenge.
But not without his fair share of difficulties.
Spokeswoman for the challenge Vera Alves said Law battled a chest infection in his first week, which was followed by a leg injury that meant some of the planned routes and distances needed to be changed.
Good food and quality sleep are essentials for Law during the challenge, she said.
‘‘It is down to those two very basic things, there is no big science behind it.’’
He has raised $379,682 for the Mental Health Foundation so far, 95 per cent of his $400,000 target and Alves said more than 300 support runners are taking part in the challenge, with each having to raise $400 to participate.
‘‘The whole trail running community has pulled together to support this,’’ she said.
‘‘Mal keeps saying the genius of this idea is that he has fresh faces to run with each day.’’
Nelson man Stu Cottam put himself forward to be a support runner for Law and first joined him to traverse Dun Mountain. He is looking forward to running alongside Law again as they cross Mt McRae. ‘‘It will be quite a challenge, I have never run through there it is untracked territory,’’ he said. ‘‘I loved it last time, any excuse to get up in the mountains.’’