Fruit and vegetable consumption and waste in Australia - VicHealth

Vignette 7: FareShare
FareShare, a food rescue group based in Melbourne, has been operating since 2001. The
not-for-profit organization receives food from a variety of donors, such as wholesalers,
catering companies and food outlets, and turns it into meals that can then be given away to
the hungry and homeless in Victoria.
Some items, such as sealed fruit juices and breakfast cereals, can be directly sent to
charities. But what makes FareShare unique is that it goes beyond this direct redistribution
role. The organization’s dedicated staff and volunteers transform the raw, prepared, or
partially prepared donated food into meals. These meals are then delivered to over 100
different community groups and charities around Melbourne. In 2007 they rescued 280
tonnes of food (FareShare, 2008).
Better Managing Food Losses along the Supply System
Utilizing gas capture technology is one technique employed by landfills to reduce their
emissions. A landfill can halve its emissions from 1,100 tonnes of carbon dioxide
equivalent emissions to just over 500 tonnes by switching from a best practice cap with
no capture to 70% capture. It is estimated that, in Australia, 26% of methane emissions
from landfills are now either flared or used to generate renewable electricity. However,
sending organic waste, such as food waste, to landfill, even with very high levels of gas
capture, is twice as greenhouse intensive as the best AWT (SCECA, 2008).
As noted above, organic waste, such as food waste, can be composted into fertiliser and
soil conditioner. According to DEWHA, modern farming practices have depleted soil
carbon levels from 3% to less than 1%. Applying recycled organic matter not only
supports agricultural systems by replenishing organic carbon levels, but can provide an
over 25% water savings, a reduction in run-off which results in soil erosion and pollution
of waterways and an enhancement in plant health. This boosts agricultural production
while saving growers money that they would otherwise be spending on chemical
fertilizers (SCECA, 2008).
For many farmers, synthetic fertilizers are the alternative to compost. Approximately 50%
of fertilizer used annually in Australia is imported. In the past year, the cost of high nitrogen
phosphate fertilizer has nearly tripled from $600 to $1700. However, large scale
composting is still challenged by unfavourable price signals; for organic waste, landfill
disposal continues to be more cost-effective than composting. Transportation costs are a
major barrier for composting. According to a submission to the enquiry by Zero Waste
Australia, there are 680,000 tonnes of Australian Standard certified compost stockpiled in
Sydney that don’t have a market primarily due to transportation costs (SCECA, 2008).
Manufacturers must balance the financial benefits of more ecologically sustainable
disposal methods with the cost of sending wastes to landfill. The choice of disposal
method is influenced by a variety of factors. These include local and state regulations
and levies, local alternatives to landfill, cost of each disposal method, distance to various
disposal facilities and human resources of the company. The most common disposal
method of industrial fruit and vegetable wastes is as stockfeed for local farmers, for
which the farmers typically pay the company. After this, most industries are sending a
portion of their wastes to be processed into fertilizers or other soil conditioners. The
remaining process by-product is generally sent to landfill. Vignette 8 highlights one
company that is working to minimize food waste to landfill. Several food manufacturers
are engaged in research on the extraction of chemical compounds from plant-based
process by-products to be used in other foods, but extraction is not currently a dominant
strategy for minimizing losses in Australia (J. Carter, personal communication, October 2,
2008; L. Gilmore, personal communication, October 27, 2008).
Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Waste in Australia 42