What’s the Problem?
Food waste is an issue that affects everyone in the food supply chain including cafés, restaurants, retailers and hotels, as well as the catering and farming sectors.
It also affects wholesale and manufacturing food companies.
The amount of food a business throws away is one indicator of the efficiency of the business. If your business creates a lot of food waste, then you’re not operating as efficiently as you could be.
Food waste makes no business sense as it negates your bottom line in two ways:
- Every bit of food your business throws away is food that you once paid for, and
- You have to pay to have it collected and taken to landfill. By reducing your food waste, you financially improve your bottom line and the efficiency of your operations. By reducing the amount of food that ends up in landfill, you also help the environment.
When it comes to minimising food waste in business, there is huge room for improvement. The National Waste Report estimates that 21.5% of business waste is food.1
Indeed, it’s estimated that Australian businesses throw away more than 1 million tonnes of food waste every year. In NSW alone, businesses annually send more than 400,000 tonnes of food to landfill.2
1 The National Waste Report http://www.ephc.gov.au/sites/default/files/WasteMgt_Nat_Waste_Report_FINAL_20_FullReport_201005_0.pdf
2 Commercial and industrial waste in Sydney – Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/warr/09616CIwasteSurvey.pdf
