Christchurch families waste 11,000 tonnes of food per year

It's a hidden scandal that costs the average Christchurch family more than $560 per year in their grocery spending.

The scandal is household food wastage, and a national campaign launched today aims to show people how to 'Love Food, Hate Waste'.

Christchurch City Councillor David East chairs the Canterbury Waste Joint Committee involving a group of nine councils.

He says based on 2011/12 audit results, 11,000 tonnes of food waste per year city wide is sent to landfill.

"Twenty-five per cent of the waste sent to landfill is food waste in the red-lidded bin even with having a green-lidded organics wheelie bin kerbside collection service. That is $1.9 million disposal cost which is paid out of rates," Cr East says.

"Basically people are putting things in the red-lidded bin that should go in the green-lidded bin.

"Christchurch City Council hopes to reduce the amount of food waste to landfill by 12.5 per cent per annum for the next five years to achieve 30kg per person per year," he says.

The campaign is being run by Councils nationwide and is based on research that included surveying 1365 New Zealanders, examining the contents of 1402 household rubbish bins and giving 100 families diaries to record food disposal for a week.

"Christchurch families were included in this research, sorting through their rubbish and taking notes. We really appreciate that's not a nice task but we're so glad they did it to find out just what is going on," Cr East says.

"What we discovered is that nearly half the food thrown away could have been eaten, so not only is there an environmental impact, but families are throwing their money away on unused food," he says.

The campaign focuses on the top 10 foods that New Zealanders throw away each year - bread, leftovers, potatoes, apples, chicken, bananas, lettuce, oranges, pumpkins and carrots.

It offers six ways to reduce food waste - plan meals and buy only what you need; store bread in the freezer; keep potatoes in the dark; take leftovers for lunch; stew fruit or make smoothies; and add leftover chicken to a pizza, or put it in a pie or a Panini.

"Not only is food wastage an insidious drain on family budgets, but it creates an unnecessary environmental burden. Look at all the good food that goes to landfills every year - we don't need that sort of pressure," Cr East says.

The research showed most people don't realise how much good food they are throwing away and how much it's costing them.

"If we all take responsibility and make an effort to use food rather than throwing it away, we can achieve our food waste reduction goals," Cr East says.

- ends -

© Scoop Media