Food waste

food waste

Each year 1.7 million tonnes of food is wasted in New South Wales. Create healthy, cost-saving meals and deal with unavoidable waste below.

What can I do?

Use your leftovers 

  • Make at least one meal a week from food that needs using up, or from the pantry
  • Label meals so you can find them in the fridge or freezer
  • Look up recipes online that use the whole vegetable eg. cauliflower, carrot, beetroot.
  • Send unuseable food scraps to a compost or worm farm
  • No compost or in a unit? Drop your scraps at one of many hosts in the Ku-ring-gai Composting Network.

Recipes using food scraps or leftovers

Cut down on packaging waste when you shop

  • Plan beforehand and make a list before you shop
  • Look for items with no packaging, or less packaging, use reusable produce bags with you
  • Choose where you shop – eg. farmers markets have unpackaged food, bulk food stores
  • Use leftovers and make your food go further, set your fridge between 0-5 degrees, pop food in the freezer to eat later
  • Make sure when you do get rid of packaging that you dispose of it responsibly. Use the Recycle Mate app for top recycling tips.

How does it help our net zero target?

By reducing food waste, we cut down on emissions and avoid toxic leaks from food sent to landfill. Around 45% of the waste in red bins in Ku-ring-gai is food waste.

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