Did you know avoidable food waste costs Australian households an average of $2500 a year? The good news is our Food Waste Challenge is helping Yarra residents learn how to reduce that. We spoke to Circular Economy Officer Joanna about her food waste journey and the benefits of signing up.
What is the Food Waste Challenge?
Yarra's food waste challenge is a 12-week online program to help residents reduce avoidable food waste. When you sign up you get emailed fortnightly tips and a choice of simple challenges to follow to help reduce your avoidable food waste one step at a time.
What are some nice positive reactions or takeaways you've seen from people who have done the challenge?
Over 90% of participants who filled out the post-challenge survey indicated they found it helpful. We're hearing that the Food Waste Challenge has helped participants reflect on their current situation and find opportunities to reduce food waste in a way that works for them.
What's something that surprised you about food waste once you started delving into this topic?
I found the research into food waste behaviour quite interesting as it bought home the fact that strategies that work for one group of people may not be relevant to another. This has led to us improving the Food Waste Challenge so it's more applicable for different lifestyles. For me, I recently learnt that bok choy can be eaten raw. I'd often added it to stir-fries, but now I'll pop it into salads too!
How has working on a project like this impacted your own habits and lifestyle?
I first realised I was wasting more food than intended when I bought a worm farm about ten years ago. The worms definitely helped me reduce my amount of food waste, but they still weren't able to get through all my scraps. That sent me down a path of learning more about this topic and made me realise I was throwing out lots of edible parts of vegetables like carrot and mushroom tips, broccoli stalks and cauliflower leaves. It turns out roasted cauliflower leaves with olive oil and paprika are delicious!
Are you interested in reducing your food waste? Sign up for our Food Waste Challenge today and we'll send you a series of helpful tips and challenges over email to help you do just that!
