Whether you live in Australia, the United States or Great Britain, it’s well known that Western consumers on average produce a lot of food-related waste—from organic matter to packaging. For example, Australians throw out more than $5 billion worth of unused food each year, which is more than it costs to run the Australian Army!

why wasting food is bad

Food that is tossed out gets added to landfill, incinerated, or stuffed into garbage disposals connected to sewerage systems. In landfills, it decomposes, generating methane, a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide in its impact on climate change! Every kilogram of food waste added to landfill creates the equivalent of a kilogram of greenhouse gases.

Valuable resources such as energy and water used to grow, package, transport and store the food are also lost. While a little food waste is inevitable, say banana peels or egg shells, we could all do better with how we care for the food we already have.

how to save food

Click here for a recipe that you cook once but can eat twice.