Food waste is a major contributor to climate change. Food waste is responsible for more than 5 percent of Australia's emissions. This does not include the emissions generated by activities such as farming or transport that are required to produce the food. The home is one of the biggest sites for food waste. Each year, Australian households waste about 2.5 million tonnes. This is equivalent to A$2,000-$2,500 per household per year. There's good news. Today, our Australian first research identified six of the most effective ways to reduce food wastage. These relatively small changes combined can make a huge difference. Australian households waste...

New Zealand is developing plans for two crises - climate change and waste - and to embrace the circular economy. It has no idea how to achieve this. This muddle dilutes the power of a circular economic system to create lasting change. A public consultation is currently underway to develop a emission reduction plan following the Climate Change Commission's advice regarding carbon budgets in New Zealand's 2050 net zero target. A new consultation document suggests a complete overhaul of the country's waste legislation and strategy. Both documents aim to move Aotearoa to a circular economic system -- one that reduces waste and pollution, keeps the...

Most people's first impressions of campaigns to reduce waste and encourage greater recycling are positive. Most of us have been taught since a young age that waste is bad and the less of it we produce, the better. Many of us have heard the phrase "Waste not, want not" since childhood. The "reduce reuse recycle" mantra is also motivated by what appears to be in the best interest of the society. These are causes that have a lot of support. The calls for the government to subsidise recycling programs and to ban certain forms of waste, like bags, are well received....

Americans celebrate the winter holidays in many ways, which typically include an abundance of food, drinks, desserts - and waste. Food waste is receiving increasing attention from managers, activists, policymakers, and scholars, who call it a global social problem. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, wealthy nations waste nearly as much food every year as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts to reduce food waste tend to focus on consumption practices, with less attention on the production and distribution side. However, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a large proportion of food loss and waste in the...

The avocado, before it reaches a European supermarket shelf, has emitted 1,3 kilograms of CO2. The avocado's production consumes 60 gallons of water. The fruit is often thrown away as household waste. Each stage of the supply chain for food is affected by waste, but the household food waste rate is the highest. British households waste approximately 6.7 million tons of food every year. This is equivalent to 32% of the total amount of food purchased. Food waste in the home is notoriously difficult for households to manage. According to studies, consumers are often unaware of the environmental impact of food waste and are rarely...

Australia is among the ten worst countries in the OECD for solid waste generation. Construction is the leading contributor to our national waste pile, with a third of it being (potentially recyclable) junk. In 2001, the Department of Environmental Heritage named Australia as the country with the largest amount of solid waste. The Productivity Commission has found, more recently, that Australia's recycling rate of 35% is much lower than the other OECD nations. Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands recycle respectively 61, 60, 56 and 56 percent of their waste. In 2006-2007, the construction and demolition industry accounted for over a...

In an effort to reduce the use of plastic bags, England introduced a five-penny charge on them almost a year back. In 2014 alone, British supermarkets used 8 billion single-use bags. It is estimated that 58,000 tons of plastic were used in 2014, with most of it ending up as litter on roads or in waterways. This has clear environmental implications: Synthetic plastic bags take hundreds of years to decompose, while those that block drainage and waterways have an immediate impact on wildlife. The use of these substances is a growing problem, and governments around the globe have attempted to...

Every year, Australian households throw away about 2,5 million tonnes of food. The majority (73%) of the food waste is disposed in landfill. Methane is produced when food waste in landfills rots. This is expensive and contributes to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions . Reducing household food waste and diverting it away from landfills saves money and improves food security. It also benefits the environment. We need to know how people produce and dispose of waste food in order to address this problem. In we found that households fall into three categories, based on how much food is wasted, whether it...

Recycling water is a necessity in a world where water is becoming increasingly scarce. Inevitably, this will mean that we'll have to use wastewater in order to grow the food needed. Will we ever be comfortable with using wastewater to produce food? This is already happening, but there is more that can be done to protect communities from the dangers associated with using untreated wastewater. Wastewater is used for food production primarily to manage water shortages and costs. The exponential population growth and climate change have severely compromised the availability of water in many regions, from the Middle East to Africa, Southeast...