Food waste costs the Australian economy $20 billion every year. Per household, $3,800 worth of groceries are thrown out. Worldwide, one third, or 1.3 billion tonnes, of food is lost or wasted, which is costing the global economy close to $940 billion every year.
In Australia, half of all fruit and vegetables produced are wasted (eg. 3.7 trillion apples). 5 million tonnes of food ends up in landfill - which is enough to fill 9,000 Olympic sized swimming pools; 35% of the average household bin is food waste. 1 burger thrown away wastes the same amount of water as a 90-minute shower.
8% of the greenhouse gases causing global warming, is caused by food waste and would be the third biggest emitter in the world. If we were to reduce or eliminate food waste, we would save up to 4.4 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide a year, which is an equivalent of taking one of four cars off the road.
There is enough food produced to feed everyone in the world, yet over 710,000 people rely on food relief every month, a quarter of those people are children. Regional & remote communities are being hit the hardest, and a third are more likely to experience food insecurity than those living in capital cities.
Source: Food Waste Facts - OzHarvest
In this project, presented for my final university project, I wanted to show consumers the extent of household waste by photographing whole fruit & vegetables that have been left to rot.
