Love Food Hate Waste Cayley McLean Resource Recovery Coordinator Introduction: Hello, my name is Cayley McLean and I work at the Tauranga City Council in the Resource Recovery and Waste Team.   In my role as the Resource Recovery Coordinator, I work with schools, businesses, events and communities to reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill. This involves numerous behaviour change programs. I am here today to talk about a new national behaviour change campaign called Love Food Hate Waste. Cayley McLean Resource Recovery Coordinator Tauranga City Council

Aim of LFHW: To create a national conversation that inspires people to take action to reduce their food waste

Nationally led by WasteMINZ Regionally delivered by local councils LFHW is Nationally led by WasteMINZ since late 2013: Waste Management Institute NZ WasteMINZ are the representative body of NZ’s waste and resource recovery sector WasteMINZ manage the: Website, social media, PR and provide support to councils LFHW is Regionally delivered by local councils: Stalls at events, competitions, advertising, cooking demonstrations etc

Three Year Campaign Year 1: Love Your Leftovers Year 2: Storage For Freshness and Longevity Year 3: Strategies For Families Website launch June 2016

Key points from presentation: 1. Food waste is a problem 2. How food waste links to health and nutrition 3. Ideas of how we can all work together to change behaviours and share resources

How do we know food is a problem? 1 / 3 of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted (worldwide) Scenario: Equivalent to dropping 2 / 6 bags every time you go grocery shopping What a waste of MONEY! But there is more than just money that is wasted….

Sad, isn’t it? Wasting food wastes: energy, water, natural resources that is used to grow, package, transport, market food. Sad, isn’t it?

But what about in NZ? I have spoken to so many people who say, “oh but we don’t waste that much food in NZ.” Well in reality, yes we do. Studies have shown that food waste makes up 30% of the average households domestic waste, by weight. While this specific example is from Tauranga City, most Councils throughout NZ are the same. Previous to this campaign, nothing was known about the composition of this food waste or why this food was being discarded.

Audit undertaken 2013/2014 25,330 samples of food audited From 1,402 households 701 surveys from the 1,402 households In order to gather more detailed data about the extent of food waste in NZ a nationwide research project took place throughout 2013 / 2014: As a result: 25,330 food samples were weighed, categorised and recorded Samples were taken from 1,402 households 701 surveys were completed from the 1402 households Methodology was based on the methodology devised in the UK by WRAP. If you would like more information on methodology behind the study, I have included the report by Waste Not in the ‘Information for Speakers’ that was sent or I can email anyone that is interested.

Food was separated into: Avoidable: Could have been eaten at some point in time Potentially Avoidable: Food that some people eat During the audit, food was separated into the following categories: Avoidable – Could have been eaten at some point in time e.g. bread, fruit, packaged food Potentially avoidable – Food that some people eat and others don’t e.g. apple and potato peels Non-avoidable – Food that the majority of people don’t eat e.g. banana skins, egg shells Non-Avoidable: Food most people don’t eat

From all food that was audited: Average 2.84 kg of food thrown out weekly: 54% Avoidable (1.5 kg) 12% Potentially avoidable (0.3 kg) 35% Non-avoidable (1 kg) 6 MONTHS of food waste for average family The average household throws out 9.47 kg in their rubbish bag / bin every week. Of this, 2.84 kg is food waste = 30% The audit results found that of the 2.84 kg of food waste per household per week, 54% is categorised as avoidable food waste (1.5 kg), 12% as potentially avoidable (0.3 kg) and 35% as non-avoidable food waste (1 kg). This picture represents what the average family will throw out over 6 months – 40 kilos worth of edible food waste In terms of the health and nutrition sector - I have drawn a circle around all the food you may be interested in – fresh fruit and vegetables. 40 KG !!

In terms of individual food types bread is top! How many of these top wasted food items are actually healthy foods we would promote people to eat? 7 / 10 are fruit and vegetables! So I guess you can imagine the top category of food wasted?

Breakdown of Avoidable Food Waste 43% FRUIT & VEGES! In the previous slide we saw that bread was the most common individual food item thrown away, but when grouped in to categories, fresh fruit and veges are by far the most wasted foods! As you can see from this graph, 43% of all avoidable food waste is FRESH fruit and vegetables! If you think about this from your sector, of course we need to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables BUT we need to make sure that these nutrient rich resources don’t just end up in the bin!

What vegetables are being wasted? While it is so important for people to be buying fresh vegetables, it is equally important that they actually eat them or are educated about proper storage techniques and also the nutritional quality of certain often seen as inedible parts, such as potato skins. E.G. Teach people to store potatoes in the dark, or don’t buy big bags unless you really need them!

What fruits are being wasted? Apples number 1! School waste audits also show lots of apples thrown out from kids lunches. Could they simply be cut up to make them easier to eat? Encourage people to buy smaller apples for children? Bananas – Once my banana go too brown/spotty, I peel them, cut them up, pop them in the freezer and use them for smoothies. They actually make the best smoothies as they are sweeter and help make a nice cold drink. Tastes more like a milkshake!

MONEY: $872 Million dollars is wasted throughout NZ on food we could have eaten (avoidable) every year! Meat and fish are the most expensive, followed by fruit and vegetables! Individual household = $563 per year This amount of money can be a lot for some households.

ALL school aged children in NZ $872 million dollars = Enough money to provide ALL school aged children in NZ with lunch for 3 years!

Is food waste a problem? YES! Is there a link to health and nutrition? YES! The stats show that yes food waste is a problem. Important notes: While we want to reduce food waste, this doesn’t mean we will be encouraging people to eat ALL of their food, as this as you could imagine could have other implications such as over eating and contribute to the obesity problem. Nor will we be encouraging people to eat food that has gone off, for obvious food safety reasons. More simply, we want to avoid too much food being purchased or cooked in the first place.

Cook too much Food is mistakenly thrown out before best before / used by date Buy takeaways at last minute rather than use food we have Don’t know how to reinvent leftovers Don’t check the cupboard / fridge before shopping Buy too much because we don’t stick to a list Get sucked in to marketing 3 for 1 etc Shopping when hungry!

Education & Collaboration What can we do to reduce food waste? Education & Collaboration

5 key behaviours to reduce food waste AND save money: Look in the fridge before shopping Make a list and stick to it Store food correctly Use leftovers in other ingredients Take leftovers for lunch Fridge – bring older things to the front so they can be eaten first, ensure you plan meals to use leftover ingredients Make a list before you go shopping, OR make a list of what you DON’T need Storage – bread in the freezer, potatoes in the dark, veges in sealed container with a paper towel for moisture, milk not in door Use leftovers up – stew leftover fruit, left over veges / meat on a pizza Leftovers for lunch – saves time! I never have to make my lunch because I always have leftovers, easy!

Collaboration: Can we add value to your programmes? Can you/we include simple messages? Can councils provide you with info to distribute? Can we run educational workshops? Together we can help households reduce food waste, save money and make the most of nutritious food. Can your organisation help get these messages across in your programmes? If providing recipe ideas, can you incorporate commonly wasted foods? If going and visiting homes, can you teach them about storing food correctly? If providing a brochure, can messages be included? Can we as councils work together to hold workshops for a selected target audience? E.g. cooking demonstrations using leftovers? Showing storage techniques? After all, these tips will help families save money and make the most of food they are buying that is providing the essential nutrition they require!

Please contact me if you have any ideas  Cayley McLean cayley.mclean@tauranga.govt.nz 07 577 7684 This is a new campaign, therefore we are interested to hear new ideas and work with a wide variety of organisations. Not just in the BOP but nationwide.

Vision: To see the BOP stop wasting food and direct it to good use in the community On a positive note: There are already organisations out there doing LOTS of hard work including one example: Good Neighbour NO WASTE, NO HUNGER

What do they do? Collect food from supermarkets around Tauranga (still more food) Fill 2 trucks – 5 days per week Collect 2.5 / 3 tonnes per week = 150 t / p.a Food to 30 charities throughout Tauranga (daily on a roster) – waiting list 70 volunteers make it happen Supermarket food includes ‘ugly food’ or damaged packaging or oversupply Daily the amount of bread wasted is ridiculous, as bread on the premises truly is baked daily! They fill 2 trucks daily and have local charities collecting food packages every day but on a roster.

THANK YOU  Thank you for your time Questions?