When I was at my friend's house over the weekend, I noticed her throwing away perfectly good food - leftovers from the night before, and cheese that had been out on the bench for 30 minutes - and I started to wonder how much food is wasted in Australia every year.
Being born in a continent that struggles to feed its citizens, Africa, I know you NEVER waste food, so I salvaged what hadn't been put in the bin yet and ate it for dinner.
To my astonishment and disappointment (because I thought it was just an isolated case of my friend being ignorant), Australians throw out three million tonnes of food every year - that is over 140kg per person, per year.
This equates to six billion dollars wasted in dumped food, the majority being fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, dairy produce, rice and pasta.
To raise awareness about food wastage in Australia, the editor of Notebook magazine, Caroline Roessler, started the 'stop food waste' campaign to educate people on how to not waste food via her blog.
“Food waste in this country is an environmental and financial disaster. When you consider that we are throwing away at least one out of five bags of groceries every time we go shopping, we might as well throw away the money it was bought with," Roessler said.
Roessier said the main reasons for food wastage is due to people not using produce before its expiration date, and also from people preparing too much food.
However, wasting food does not only affect our finances - it also affects the environment.
The Australian 2006 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory report stated methane emissions from solid waste disposal on land were equivalent to 13.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Way too much, if you ask me.
In recent years, food wastage has been brought to media attention by 'freegans' - people who salvage food by dumpster diving at supermarkets for political reasons, rather than out of need for food.
In the US, a University of California San Diego professor, Milton Saier, was filmed by CNN
'dumpster diving', in an effort to raise awareness to the 100 billion dollars worth of food wasted in the US, every year.
Saier said he retrieved $300-$500 worth of good food in dumpsters behind supermarkets. As for the rotten food, Saier used it for compost and to feed his chickens.
Even with such attempts of raising awareness, however, food wastage is still increasing. Maybe it is time for the government to step in and educate society.
Maybe with the help of the government, our attitudes will change; we will help save the environment by cutting down on emissions caused by wasted food; we will save money by shopping smartly; and we will no longer have a guilty conscious about taking for granted something that others die trying to find in other countries.
Imagine a day where there won't be any food left for dumpster divers to find.
*I have a confession: Last week I bought two large pizzas and got through one and a half boxes, chucked the rest in the fridge and forgot about it for a week so I had to throw away the rest. I am part of the problem.
For more information on how to shop smart and save food visit: homelife.com.au
