Factsheet–Food waste

The quantity of food waste sent to landfill is greater than for any other material category for both the MSW and C&I waste streams[1]. In 2010–11, the amount of food waste sent to landfill as a proportion of total reported waste for municipal solid waste (MSW) was 30 per cent for New South Wales and 46percent for Victoria, and 15 per cent for the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector for both New South Wales and Victoria[2].

The majority of the total food waste generated is also sent to landfill. For example, in Victoria over 80 per cent of the total food waste went to landfill (see Table 1).

Table 1 Waste treatment as a percentage of the total food waste generation in NSW and Victoria in 2010–11.
Waste treatment / New South Wales / Victoria
Disposal to landfill / 67% / 82%
Recycling / 13% / 2%
Energy recovery / 20% / 16%

Source: Waste generation and resource recovery in Australia.

Food may become waste at different points along the supply chain including at the production, transportation, processing, distribution, purchase and post consumption stages. Although food waste has a low recovery rate at present there are multiple benefits to increased waste avoidance and recovery including:

  • increased food security by more effective food management.
  • reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions may be avoided in production, transportation and storage of food that then becomes waste. Food waste is also one of the main sources of methane generation in landfill. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential significantly greater than carbon dioxide.The net impact of recycling food waste in the C&I sector is the avoidance of 0.25 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of food waste[3].
  • other environmental benefits such as retention of nutrients by converting waste into compost and soil amendment products and energy recovery from waste.
  • social benefits, including addressing social disadvantage by providing food to people in need; and enabling charities to spend less of their budget on food and more on other goods and services.
  • economic benefits, including reduced costs for households, businesses and other enterprises (e.g. reduced purchase of food that becomes waste, labour cost in preparing food that goes to waste, avoiding landfill levies in disposal), market development, expansion and job creation.

Barriers and opportunities to reduce waste and improve resource recovery

Municipal solid waste stream

One of the biggest opportunities is in the further recovery of food from the MSW waste stream. An increasing number of councils are considering, trialling or implementing food organics recycling. Mixed solid waste,including organic material, may also be processed by alternative waste treatment infrastructure, however the infrastructure availability and capacity currently may limit this option.

There may be local drivers that facilitate the recovery of food waste. For example, due to high landfill and waste disposal costs there has been a significant move in the Sydney metropolitan area to kerbside collection and processing of food and garden organics. Nationally, as at May2012, 6.8 per cent of local councils offered a kerbside recycling service for food, which represents a total of 10.3 per cent of the population with access to this service[4].

Commercial and industrial waste stream

The most effective recovery of food waste occurs when it is separatedat the source from the rest of the waste stream. Some sources of food waste, particularly unpackaged, fresh produceand manufacturing wastes,can be separated relatively easily.

Barriers to separation of food waste include:

  • ongoing implementation costs e.g. staff training and labour, even if this may only be a perception.
  • collectionservices may not be readily accessible, particularly for small to medium sized businesses.
  • many organics recovery systems do not tolerate any contamination and are often focused on food preparation waste. Post-consumer waste may be contaminated with disposable items such as plastic straws, sauce sachets or contain meat bones or other items not accepted by collection services.

Food waste has a large economic cost and is a dominant input cost for the C&I sector. The estimated input cost for purchasing food organics that are then disposed of is $8.2 billion for waste to landfill and $2.3 billion for waste that is recycled[5]. While there will be unavoidable food waste, even small percentage improvements in reducing unnecessary food wastage has financial benefits and there will be benefits to business in understanding the full cost of waste, including input costs.

A 2013 study into C&I waste and recycling by industry division identified two subdivisions for priority action: the retail trade (food retail) and the accommodation and food services (food servicing) sectors. These sectors generate large amounts of waste in total, generate a high proportion of waste per employee i.e. have a high waste ‘intensity’, and have high levels of recoverable material, including food waste, sent to landfill.

In the food retail sector, 37 per centof the total waste sent to landfill is specifically attributed to food waste.A further ‘unknown’ category of 50 per centof the total waste generation is also likely to include food waste[6].Food retailing has a high proportion of small to medium businesses which increases the challenge of achieving good recycling rates in this sector. These enterprises may not be able to readily access recycling services as they may not

generate a viable amount of waste for collection.There are some substantial gains being made in waste avoidance in the supermarket sector through the heavy discounting of perishables as they approach the ‘use by date’ expiry and systems for stock control.

Small food retailers appear to have a wide range of food waste and the degree to which their produce is perishable will influence the amount of food waste generated.Guidance material for food retail and food and beverage services businesses to develop and implement strategies for separating food waste from their general waste stream for either on-site or off-site treatment may assist with recovery rates.

Unsold product is significant in retail trade. It is likely that there could be increased avoidance of waste through:

  • more refined ordering of stock to suit requirements
  • finding alternative mechanisms for disposing of unused stock (e.g. food rescue charities)
  • supplier take-back of unsold stock.

There is significant diversity in the amount of C&I waste generatedby cafes, restaurants, takeaway outlets and caterers. Cafes generally undertake less cooking and food preparation on site than other outlets and can manage inventories better as a result. Restaurants have both high food preparation waste and post-consumer waste and over half of the general waste stream from restaurants may be food. Take-away outlets may have a high proportion of waste from unsold product. Corporate catering operates on a model that regularly generates wastage of 25-50 per cent due to client expectation of excess. Suitable strategies for waste avoidance and recovery in this sector include ongoing staff training (particularly due to high staff turnover),improved inventory control, reduction of unsold product waste and increased recovery, including by food rescue and recycling.

Common drivers for businesses in establishing food waste collection systems include:

  • health and safety considerations as food waste is heavy, odorous and produces leachate that may leak.
  • saving space and/or reduced collection frequency for other wastes. Food waste is stored separately which enables other general waste to be collected less frequently.
  • business positioning as a leader in good environmental practices.


A 2013 study into the C&I sector found that few businesses implemented food waste collection services in order to save money, although the fact that it often resulted in reduced waste charges assisted with smooth implementation. The study also noted that the implementation of food waste collection systems may often be driven by clients rather than being sold as a service by waste collection companies[7]. Greater supply of food waste collection services and increased demand would contribute to improved recoverythrough this mechanism.

Smaller businesses may not generate sufficient consistent volumes of food waste to make collection economically viable for waste collection companies. However, there may be opportunities for these businesses to access local government recycling facilities, to coordinate with other local businesses to aggregate their food waste to a viable volume for collection services or to have a greater take up of food rescue services.

Food rescue is the recovery of edible food products that are redistributedto people in need. This type of resource recovery has seen substantial growth in recent years through the work of organisations such as Fareshare, Foodbank, OzHarvest and Second Bite(see case studies Foodbank, OzHarvest and SecondBite for further details).

In 2012–13, a total of 32372 tonnes of food were recovered and redistributed by four organisations (Table 2). Despite this effort, food rescue currently only diverts a small proportion of food waste from manufacturing and an even smaller amount from retail businesses.There is the potential for increased food rescue with raised awareness about this mechanism and possibly greater use of supply chain collation from individual outlets.

Table 2 Food recovered by food rescue charities in 2012–13[8].
Organisation / Food recovered (tonnes) / Charities/other organisations assisted
Fareshare / 610 / 360
Foodbank / 25,662 / Over 2,500
OzHarvest / 1900 / 510
SecondBite / 4200 / Nearly 1000 community food programs
Total / 32,372 / n/a

Recovery for recycled organic products

The annual Recycled Organics Unit (ROU) surveys of the organics processing and recycling industry present information on the amounts of organic material received for processing including food waste (see Table 3). However, direct comparisons between years are not possible due to variation in survey participation[9] and reporting.

Table 3 Organic material reported to be received for processing by financial year in kilotonnes (kt)[10][11].
2005-06 / 2006-07 / 2007-08 / 2008-09 / 2009-10 / 2010-11 / 2011-12
Food organics (food waste) (kt) / 82 / 79 / 124 / 136 / 212 / 151 / 164
Biowaste (mixed garden and food) (kt) / 10 / 16 / 14 / 32 / 50 / 55 / 37

Energy from waste recovery

In 2010–11, the equivalent of 0.8 million tonnes of food waste in landfill in Australia were recovered via biogas energy recovery[12]. Increased gas capture rates at landfills would contribute to improved recovery rates.

For more information on food waste see:

  • A study into C&I commercial and industrial (C&I) waste and recycling in Australia by industry division
  • Commercial and industrial waste profile factsheet
  • Fareshare
  • Food and garden organics best practice collection manual
  • FoodBank
  • Interactive mapping tool
  • National food waste assessment
  • National organicswaste profile factsheet
  • Organics recycling in Australia -Industry statistics 2012
  • Organic recycling in Australia - Industry statistics 2011
  • Organic recycling in Australia - Industry statistics 2006-2010
  • OzHarvest
  • Planet Ark’s website to find out what councils offer food waste collection and to locate drop off facilities
  • Reap
  • Recycled Organics Unit
  • Jurisdictional waste profile factsheets, including the NSW Love Food Hate Waste case study
  • SecondBite
  • Think Eat Save (United Nations Environment Programme)

1

[1] These percentages are derived from NSW and Victoria figures for 2010–2011 in Waste generation and resource recovery in Australia. These are the two jurisdictions that report against waste streams.

[2] NSW and Victoria are the only two jurisdictions that report specifically against food waste.

[3]A study into C&I commercial and industrial (C&I) waste and recycling in Australia by industry division

[4]Recycling Near You 2012.Recycling service accessibility, unpublished.

[5] Based on 2010-2011 figures in A study into C&I commercial and industrial (C&I) waste and recycling in Australia by industry division

[6]A study into C&I commercial and industrial (C&I) waste and recycling in Australia by industry division

[7]A study into C&I commercial and industrial (C&I) waste and recycling in Australia by industry division

[8] Figures supplied by Fareshare, Foodbank, OzHarvest and SecondBite.

[9]Tasmania and the Northern Territory were not included in the survey over this period. In the 2006–7 survey, data for the ACT and Victoria was not available for that financial year and so 2005–6 data was used instead. In 2007–8, Victoria and the ACT did not participate, with the ACT also not participating in the 2009–10, 2010–11 or 2011–12 surveys.

[10]Recycled Organics Unit (ROU) for the DoE, Organic recycling in Australia: industry statistics (2011 and 2012)

[11]Recycled Organics Unit 2006-2010.Organics Recycling in Australia: Industry Statistics 2006-2010 available at

[12]Blue Environment and Randell Environmental Consulting.Waste generation and resource recovery in Australia(2013)