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Speaker 1: Staggering statistics on food waste. We're throwing away seven point

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Speaker 1: six million tons of food every year, worth thirty six

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Speaker 1: billion dollars, almost thirty seven billion. That is twenty nine

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Speaker 1: million meals per day wasted across Australia, enough to provide

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Speaker 1: lunch daily for everybody in the country. Three point seven

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Speaker 1: million households struggle at the same time to put food

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Speaker 1: on the table. All of this will be discussed at

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Speaker 1: the National Food Waste Summit, which begins tomorrow. The see

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Speaker 1: of en Food Waste Australia is doctor Steve Blappitch and

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Speaker 1: he joins me now.

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Speaker 2: Steve, good morning, Good morning, Matthew.

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Speaker 1: Just terrible figures. Why have we not learned to do

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Speaker 1: better in this regard? Food waste has always been a problem,

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Speaker 1: but never as much as now, it seems.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, i'd actually challenge that. I don't know whether food

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Speaker 2: waste has always been a problem. I think in tougher

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Speaker 2: times of times past, you know, food waste was minimal.

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Speaker 2: There's always been some level of production waste because of

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Speaker 2: storms and disease and what have you. But in terms

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Speaker 2: of household food based you know, in the past we

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Speaker 2: managed it much better.

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Speaker 1: We're getting worse at it, aren't.

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Speaker 2: We We are getting worse at it. And what we're

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Speaker 2: trying to do as an organized organization is make wasting

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Speaker 2: food a conscious behavior because most people just don't think

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Speaker 2: about it. Now if they throw out a banana or

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Speaker 2: you know, the lessons from the fridge, and we want

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Speaker 2: to make that action just you know, the action throwing

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Speaker 2: in the bin something that's really conscious. So people are

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Speaker 2: concerned about food waste because it is a leading cause

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Speaker 2: of climate change.

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Speaker 1: How do we do that? How do you change that behavior?

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Speaker 1: Because is it because it's so plentiful, This is still

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Speaker 1: a lucky country. And you know something looks a bit

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Speaker 1: moldy or whatever or not as fresh, you chuck it

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Speaker 1: away and you know you can just go get a

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Speaker 1: replacement around the corner.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, the abundance of food in Australia certainly means

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Speaker 2: that we're not so worried about throwing food away, I

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Speaker 2: believe it or not. We're actually one of the cheapest

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Speaker 2: countries in the world for food as a percentage of

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Speaker 2: a household income. And I know it doesn't seem the

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Speaker 2: case when you walk out of the supermarket and you

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Speaker 2: spend a few hundred dollars, but in terms of our

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Speaker 2: incomes it's actually one of the lowest. And because that,

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Speaker 2: you know, there's less barriers and financial barriers to throwing

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Speaker 2: away food. But you know that's the average family and

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of families out there that are really

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Speaker 2: struggling at the moment. And you know the recent that's

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Speaker 2: from the Food Bank Hunger Report is that a population

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Speaker 2: the size of Melbourne and Sydney combined is food insecure

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Speaker 2: in Australia. Now that's an alarming fact in itself. When

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Speaker 2: we produce enough food for three times our population.

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Speaker 1: Do you need a campaign? Is it a TV ad

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Speaker 1: that's got to run to try and or radio ad

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Speaker 1: would be better, But trying to get people their behaviors.

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Speaker 2: It's all of that. Everyone gets their messages and their

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Speaker 2: cues from different different medium and we will embark on

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Speaker 2: a new nationwide consumer behavior change campaign later this year.

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Speaker 2: It's being developed as we speak, and that will be

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Speaker 2: the first time there's been consistent national messaging around reducing

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Speaker 2: food waste. The Isralian government has committed to having food

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Speaker 2: waste by twenty thirty and where the national lead agency

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Speaker 2: and delivering that and the summit that we've got here

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Speaker 2: in Melbourne over the next couple of days is really

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Speaker 2: bringing everyone on board about how we're going to achieve

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Speaker 2: that target. That's a behavior change campaign is an absolutely

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Speaker 2: critical part of it.

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Speaker 1: Since we began wasting food more and more, and I

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Speaker 1: suppose we've done that over the last what twenty thirty

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Speaker 1: or so years, Have we seen a decline? Has it

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Speaker 1: gone the other way noticeably or for more than one

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Speaker 1: year in a row.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what happens is during the things got the global

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Speaker 2: financial crisis back in he was two thousand or so,

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Speaker 2: and then during the pandemic, we can very quickly reduce

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Speaker 2: our levels of food waste. You know, when you don't

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Speaker 2: want to go to the shops because that's the biggest

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Speaker 2: risk of catching COVID, then you very quickly learn to

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Speaker 2: manage your food a lot better. So we all have

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Speaker 2: it enough. But that's coming back to that conscious versus

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Speaker 2: unconscious behavior. So when you're conscious about it, you waste

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Speaker 2: less food. Just like you know, years ago, people used

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Speaker 2: to throw Lissa out the window driving down the road

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Speaker 2: and we've managed to stop that largely with a lot

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Speaker 2: of really effective campaigns over the years. And you know

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Speaker 2: that's what we want to do with food waste.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, what about things out of our control as

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Speaker 1: opposed to just chucking food out of the fridge straight

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Speaker 1: into the bin? What about packaging? Does that need to

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Speaker 1: change to keep food fresher for longer? For instance?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, there's an interesting paradox between packaging and food waste,

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Speaker 2: because if we get rid of all packaging, they will

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Speaker 2: actually increase food waste, and there's greater environmental impact from

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Speaker 2: that food waste rotting in landfill than using the packaging.

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Speaker 2: That said, you know, some thing's asked to overpackage, and

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Speaker 2: some of those packaging formats you know, aren't bargegradable or

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Speaker 2: reusable or recyclable. And so we're trying to achieve both

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Speaker 2: the twenty twenty five packaging targets as well as the

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Speaker 2: twenty thirty food waste target without increasing food waste at

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Speaker 2: the same time. And yeah, getting that balance right is

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Speaker 2: really tricky.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So there's all sorts of different considerations in that.

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Speaker 1: Are these targets achievable? Do you think are they? Are

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Speaker 1: they realistic?

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Speaker 2: The twenty twenty five packaging targets, I believe you will

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Speaker 2: not be met. They're still a long way off in

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Speaker 2: terms of or companies or packaging producers and users meeting

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Speaker 2: those targets and they will start being mandated after twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty five, and so that's when I think we'll really

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Speaker 2: I think even more change in this area. The twenty

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Speaker 2: thirty food waste target all our modeling in the case

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Speaker 2: that we can still achieve it. We will be launching

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Speaker 2: a new strategic business plan tomorrow at the National Food

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Speaker 2: Waste Summit, which details how we can do that, but

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Speaker 2: it will require a significant amount of new investment and

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Speaker 2: so we yet to see whether that will be realized.

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Speaker 2: We certainly hope it does, because I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: we are one of the leading countries in the world

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Speaker 2: now in terms of our fight against food waste, and

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Speaker 2: this is a target that we can achieve if everyone

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Speaker 2: gets on board, and that's what the summit is really about.

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Speaker 1: So twenty nine million meals wasted a day. What is

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Speaker 1: the twenty thirty target.

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Speaker 2: The twenty thirty target is to have per capita food

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Speaker 2: loss and waste in Australia. So food loss is from

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Speaker 2: the farm up to the retailer or distribution. The food

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Speaker 2: waste is thereafter. But ultimately, you know, we define it

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Speaker 2: always as food waste, and our per capita target is

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Speaker 2: for twenty thirty is one hundred and fifty six kilograms

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Speaker 2: per person. Well, that's a big target and one of

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Speaker 2: the biggest in the world. Unfortunately as around some of

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Speaker 2: the worst food wasters in the world. But you know,

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Speaker 2: it is a target we believe that we can achieve

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Speaker 2: and we will pull out all the stops to achieve

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Speaker 2: that target.

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Speaker 1: So one hundred and fifty six kilos, that's we shouldn't

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Speaker 1: be throwing away any more than that by twenty thirty,

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Speaker 1: is that right?

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Speaker 2: So I should say the overall figure is three hundred

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Speaker 2: and twelve kilograms is what each person in Australia. Well

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Speaker 2: they don't necessarily throw that out themselves, but that's the

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Speaker 2: volume from farm to four three hundred and twelve we

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Speaker 2: have to have that that one hundred and fifty six kilograms.

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Speaker 2: So that's our target and that works out too based

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Speaker 2: on the projected population in twenty thirty four point six

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Speaker 2: million tons. Now to put into perspective, that's about five

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Speaker 2: times the volume of the MCG.

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Speaker 1: Goodness, Yeah, that's soundreal, isn't it When you think of

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Speaker 1: it like that, that much food wasted and that's your target.

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Speaker 2: Still, and that's the target still. That said, you know,

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Speaker 2: we've been going for six years now and all our

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Speaker 2: modeling indicates that all the activities that we've done over

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Speaker 2: the first few years of our lifetime will achieve about

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Speaker 2: a thirty percent reduction on that target. So it's the

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Speaker 2: other seventy percent remaining of which we're committed to achieving

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Speaker 2: about fifty five percent of that, and other activities that

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Speaker 2: states and territories and the industry are doing will achieve

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Speaker 2: around fifteen percent of that. So we can still still

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Speaker 2: make it, and we're probably one of the few countries

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Speaker 2: that can, but it will take a massive effort.

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Speaker 1: Sure, Steve, fascinating discussion. I hope the summit goes well

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Speaker 1: this week. Thank you for your time. Thanks Matthew, Doctor

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Speaker 1: Steve Lappige, CEO and Food Waste Australia,