Valuing Our Food Waste

About

Now Closed

This online engagement was hosted on YourSAy from 18 June to 28 August 2020. Below is a record of the engagement.

Have your say on the draft strategy and framework of actions to reduce food waste from households and businesses and divert this material from landfill.

What’s being decided?

We are seeking feedback on the draft Valuing Our Food Waste: South Australia’s strategy to reduce and divert household and business food waste (Valuing our Food Waste).

The draft strategy supports the proposed state waste targets and proposes specific actions to reduce and divert food waste across three program areas:

• Prevention and diversion of household generated food waste
• Commercial sector food waste generation and collection systems
• Attracting and supporting investment and markets

The actions supporting these program areas consider:

• existing policy measures including progressing the circular economy in South Australia
• working within the waste management hierarchy
• addressing single-use plastics
• supporting the South Australian resource recovery industry.

Given the significant role that state and local government, business and the community will play in achieving the objectives, we want your feedback on the draft Valuing our Food Waste and proposed actions to reduce food waste.

Get involved

To provide your feedback, read Valuing our Food Waste: South Australia’s strategy to reduce and divert household and business food waste and the summary of proposed actions for change and have your say by:

• Joining the online discussion
• Emailing your feedback to greenindustries@sa.gov.au

Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged by Green Industries SA. Submissions will be treated as public documents unless received in confidence. They may be quoted in full or part in subsequent Green Industries SA reports. If you do not want the public to read your answers, please write ‘confidential’ on your submission.

How can your input influence the decision?

Your feedback will help Green Industries SA develop the final household and business food waste strategy and the framework of actions.

What are the next steps?

The final strategy and framework of actions will be released in late 2020 and will be available on this site.

Contact details

For general enquiries, please email greenindustries@sa.gov.au or call us on 08 8204 2051 during business hours (9am to 5pm, weekdays).

Closing date: 5pm, Friday 28 August 2020

Background

Now Closed

This online engagement was hosted on YourSAy from 18 June to 28 August 2020. Below is a record of the engagement.

Food waste is an environmental and economic challenge globally. Since the release of its first state-wide waste strategy in 2005, South Australia has implemented measures to prevent and divert food waste from landfill into productive use. Its initiatives have included:

• financial incentives
• an environment protection legislative framework
• education and awareness efforts.

South Australia’s investment to date in infrastructure and the systems to collect and process organic waste, including food waste, provides a valuable platform to take the next significant step. There are many opportunities for us to prevent the generation of and increase the recovery of food waste currently sent to landfill to make better use of this valuable resource, contributing to a circular economy within South Australia.

Diverting organics:

• lowers landfill costs to councils and businesses
• decreases methane emissions from landfill
• supports local industry and jobs
• increases the viability and regeneration of soils through the application of compost.

It is estimated that 200,000 tonnes of food waste is still sent to landfill each year from the business and household sectors - with the majority of this material collected from household kerbside collections. As such, addressing food waste is of the key focus areas in the draft South Australia’s Waste Strategy 2020-2025 currently out for consultation.

Food waste prevention and the redistribution of surplus food are key targets. However, there will always be a component of unused or discarded food that is not suitable for human or animal consumption. Effective collection and processing systems are critical to manage this material at its highest utility and value to recover and return nutrients to the soil and minimise losses throughout the food value chain.

About Green Industries SA

Green Industries SA is an enabler and driver of change, supporting the development of the circular economy through diverse collaborations which improve productivity, resilience, resource efficiency and the environment.

It aims to transform how South Australians use and value resources. Its objectives under the Green Industries SA Act 2004 are to:

• promote waste management practices that, as far as possible, eliminate waste or its consignment to landfill; and
• promote innovation and business activity in the waste management, resource recovery and green industry sectors, recognising these areas present valuable opportunities to contribute to the state’s economic growth.