The United Nations General Assembly designated 29 September as the annual International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. The day is co-convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). It will be observed for the fourth time in 2023.
The day is to help raise awareness to the importance of food waste action, and to promote the global efforts and collective action towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3 – halving food waste by 2030.
Fight Food Waste Limited, incorporating Fight Food Waste CRC and Stop Food Waste Australia, encourages everyone to get involved and help spread the food waste action message this #FLWDay. Learn more about food waste below and see how you can get involved.
How to get involved:
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Help spread the message on your social media channels
FFWL has developed a partner toolkit and downloadable social media assets, which you can access here.
Share these on your channels using the #FLWDay and tagging @fightfoodwastecrc (LinkedIn), @stopfoodwasteaustralia (LinkedIn), @FightFoodWaste_Aus (Instagram), @FoodWasteCRC (Twitter), @StopFoodWasteOz (Twitter), @FightFoodWasteAus (Facebook).
As conveners of IDAFLW, FAO have continued to share the assets from 2022 IDAFLW via their asset bank.
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Attend a #FLWDay event:
See what’s on:
FFWL is hosting a free webinar “Too good to waste: ending food waste in Australia” on Thursday, 28 September at 10:30AM AEST. Hear from our expert and passionate team about practical solutions to prevent, reduce and transform Australia’s food waste. Register via Zoom to attend: https://bit.ly/Webinar-food-good-to-waste
FAO and UNEP’s Global Seminar for International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Awareness, hosted in Rome but free to join virtually. FFWL CEO Dr Steven Lapidge is speaking as part of the day’s program. Learn more and register to join here.
AgTech + Reducing food loss and waste meet up at the Waite Research Precinct, Adelaide. Hear from industry, researchers and start-ups about the opportunities in the food waste action space for future innovation, and some of the great work already underway. Register to attend here.
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Learn more about food waste action in Australia and start reducing food waste today
Did you know?
The environmental impacts of food waste:
- Wasting food wastes all the resources, energy, water, land and fuel used to produce and distribute it.
- In Australia, food waste generates 17.5 million tonnes of CO2 – 3 % of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
- Australia uses around 2600 gigalitres of water to grow food that is waste – the same volume of water that could fill five Sydney Harbours.
The scale of the food waste problem:
- 1/3 of all food is wasted. At the same time, 2 million households in Australia (21%) have gone hungry in the last year (Foodbank Hunger Report 2022).
- Australia wastes 7.6 million tonnes of food a year. The equivalent of every Australian throwing away 24 burgers A WEEK.
- Food waste happens at every stage of the food supply chain.
- Food waste costs Australian households up to $2500 a year.
Why fight food waste?
- Ending food waste is good for people, the planet and industry profitability.
- Ending food waste will take everyone getting involved. Some of Australia’s biggest food businesses have committed to fighting food waste by joining the Australian Food Pact. The Pact is Australia’s biggest collaborative efforts of food businesses committed to fighting food waste in their operations, supply chain and by supporting consumers.
- You can start fighting food waste today, if you’re a food business, the Australian Food Pact is the country’s biggest collaborative efforts of food businesses committed to fighting food waste in their operations, supply chain and by supporting consumers.
- At home, you can take start taking small actions that can have big impact to reduce food waste – try leaving a night a week (or two) to eat or repurpose leftovers, storing food correctly, and get creative to use food you already have.
Thanks for getting involved!
