Env ironmental impacts - Lov e Food Hate Waste
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Environmental impacts
Love Food Hate Waste is raising awareness about the food we waste and the impact it has on our environment. Food waste affects our environment in many ways – did you know scraping your leftovers into the bin contributes directly to climate change? Find out more about how the decisions we make every day in the supermarket and in the kitchen affect the world we live in.
Love Food! with Callum Hann
MasterChef contestant Callum Hann explains the food waste problem. Watch video Content on this page Food waste and climate change Landfill and pollution Food production lifecycle Paddock to plate Water
Preparing the correct serving size is an easy way to reduce food waste.
Food waste and climate change
Excess amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are contributing to global warming and climate change. When wasted food is thrown away and breaks down in landfill, together with other organic materials, it becomes the main contributor to the generation of methane – a gas 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. National greenhouse inventory data tells us landfills contribute two per cent of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, if food waste produced by households is reduced by 66 per cent in line with the NSW Government’s Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy, the greenhouse gas savings would be equivalent to taking 117,000 cars permanently off the road in NSW. We can all make a real contribution to tackling climate change and living more sustainably by wasting less food.
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Landfill and pollution
Food waste can also have a major impact on landfills, or rubbish tips, and how these sites affect the surrounding environment. The breakdown of food waste in landfill releases nutrients, which can migrate out of landfilled waste and into the surrounding environment.