Waste not want not

Spent the evening at Ranges (Our new Church) after eating together watching and discussing, The Story of Stuff. I’ve seen and probably blogged about this before, but it’s a great reminder. Currently at uni I am – with a group- preparing and presenting a business plan for turning food scraps (We’re aimed at restaurants) into organic fertilizer. It’s an interesting project with some appalling statistics. Food waste is huge – from the 1 in 5 bags of shopping that is unused and chucked to the 145kg that’s wasted per person per year. Various countries (or at least a few states/areas/regions) around the world are responding to food waste in creating fertilizer of compost but Aus is trailing. South Australia are running several pilot programs but on the whole we suck. There are things personally that I could do but don’t. We don’t compost… don’t really have much of a garden to put it on. We do throw out a lot of food as our lifestyle is so unstructured and we’re out multiple times a week unexpectedly.

I think next time I buy my fruit and veg I might just have to visit the locally grown organics shop a few suburbs away instead and have cause to plan out meals and weeks a bit more instead. It’s suspicously close to some of the balance stuff I’ve been thinking about.

One Comment

  1. said:

    Hi Bec, it is something we need to be reminded of again and again I think. I know I certainly do. It is so easy to buy into wasteful practices, from consumtion, use to disposal. Your project for uni sounds great. The waste is staggering.

    On the fruit and veggie front – we have a good organic shop near us, and while it is more expensive, I find that I buy less in the first place and am more inclined to use up all of it to avoid wasting it. I always throw heaps away when I go to the supermarket, or even the local green grocer. Just seem to buy more than what I need. Maybe the relative cheapness of our food leaves us more likely to devalue it.

    I think you have a couple of organic shops near(ish) to you – one in McAddam Square in Croydon HIlls, and one in South Croydon.

    by the way, we love having you guys being part of our church journey…

    March 29, 2009
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