Billions in the bin as economy struggles with true cost of food waste

When Karl Riseborough realised how much food went to waste each week at his Sydney pub and brewery, he was shocked.

Grain left over from the beer-making process was thrown out, as well as food waste from the kitchen.

What surprised him most was "the volume" of waste on top of the spent grain.

"The food scraps coming back, the plate waste, the kitchen prep waste … you don't really notice when it was all going straight into the bin," Mr Riseborough said.

Food waste expert Belinda Chellingworth says many traders have no idea how much waste they are generating, or how much it is affecting their bottom line.

Every year about 7.6 million tonnes of food is wasted in Australia at a cost of more than $36 billion to the economy.

Of that wasted food, 70 per cent is edible and there are critical knock-on effects for landfill management, food security and the climate.

With the support of Ms Chellingworth, who happily calls herself a "garbologist", Mr Riseborough has stopped throwing away 50 kilograms of spent grain from each batch of beer he brews.

"So now I have regular users who come and collect it once I've brewed and use it for the benefit of their gardens or their animals," Riseborough said.

"We had two 240-litre bins that were getting collected each week. We're now down to one bin collected each fortnight."

He says that saves him about $5,000 a year.

The cumulative effect not realised

Australia's hospitality sector wastes 1.2 million tonnes of food each year, according to the Sustainable Restaurant Association.

The economic impact of food waste in the food service sector is about $6.4 billion, averaging about $66,000 annually per business.

Ms Chellingworth said less than a quarter of businesses regularly inspected their food waste.

"Typically, many businesses, if they've got food left over at the end of their operations or the end of the day, then it will be landfilled," she said.

"For many businesses, and particularly large businesses, the cost of food waste across their operations isn't fully realised because they incur it multiple times, but it's not obvious."

For example, over-ordering food is a cost to the kitchen. If it's not sold, that's a revenue cost, and then whatever goes into the bin also involves a cost for collection.

"So they're paying for it multiple times, but they're different departments, different cost centres, and it's often not added together, so they don't understand the full cost across the whole business," Ms Chellingworth said.

She says landfill capacity is reaching critical levels in many areas.

Some tips in Perth are set to run out of space in two years and sites in New South Wales are set to reach capacity in four years.

Victoria's capacity is expected to be reached in the next 10 years.

Government target 'unachievable'

To combat the economic and environmental impacts of food waste, the federal government has committed to halving food waste reduction by 2030.

But UNSW food and health professor Johannes le Coutre does not believe we are on track.

"I'm not sure if that's attainable or achievable with the current landscape," he said.

"In Australia we have a unique situation in that we are dealing with a big distance and that even in the food industry a lot of value-added manufacturing occurs overseas."

In a statement to the ABC, a spokesperson for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said: "The Australian Government is working with jurisdictions and industry to drive behaviour change and expand organics recycling capacity".

"This includes investing $37 million into new and upgraded organics recycling infrastructure, $30 million to set up the End Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre to research food waste interventions, [and] $10 million on the Great Unwaste Campaign to help Australians reduce food waste at home."

Alongside food waste, Professor le Coutre said about 3.5 million households were experiencing food shortages.

"If we address the food waste problem, we might be able to help that," he said.

"We are a modern country, a modern economy … we need to raise awareness, we need to improve technology, and we need to improve policy."

Ms Chellingworth said some businesses were reluctant to donate excess food due to common misunderstandings.

"It's not widely understood or well-known, but every Australian state and territory has laws in place to protect food donors, provided that certain conditions are met when the food exchanges hands," she said.

"The food needs to be edible when it's donated, any instructions on how to refrigerate it or prepare it afterwards need to be provided, it must be free … and it needs to go to a registered organisation."

Food waste a global issue

Excessive food waste is a global concern and will be a focus at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP31, in Türkiye next month.

Professor le Coutre said the impact of food waste on the climate could not be underestimated.

"A lot of greenhouse gas emissions are based on agricultural, industrialised activities on our planet — that is something which needs to be improved," he said.

"Livestock management can be improved in order to lower greenhouse gas emissions and, if we work on that end, we will have a chance as well to improve food security, improve food systems, and lower food waste."

Ms Chellingworth said there were examples abroad that Australia could take inspiration from.

"France has laws that mean that supermarkets over a certain size must donate edible food," she said.

"In the Netherlands, they've had a long-running food waste campaign for all of their citizens to help them understand how they can reduce food waste at home, as well.

"Stronger mandates for food rescue and food donation … would start to help alleviate the pressure that a lot of households are feeling with cost of living and food insecurity as well."