00:01So of the 7.6 million tonnes of food that's wasted each year, about 70% of that is actually
00:08edible. And then when you look at the business side of things, the Australian hospitality
00:13sector wastes 1.2 million tonnes of food each year, which costs that sector about $6 billion.
00:21So if you average that out across businesses, obviously some are bigger than others, but
00:25that's about $66,000 per business each year that's just being wasted from the bottom line.
00:33And it's concerning as well because most businesses aren't actually aware of their contribution
00:40to food waste and then what that is actually doing to their bottom line. So it's less than
00:45a quarter that are doing any sort of regular audit in terms of their contribution.
00:50So what is the government trying to do to combat this then?
00:53So they have made a commitment to halve food waste by 2030. And the federal government
00:59told me that it's working with states and territories and also businesses to make changes. This includes
01:06upgrading recycle infrastructure. It also includes more research into food waste intervention.
01:12But there are different experts who are concerned we're not going to meet that 2030 target. And
01:18that's concerning as well because at the same time as this food waste issue that we're having across
01:23the country, we're also seeing that millions of households are experiencing food insecurity.
01:29And so experts have told me that if we were to tackle the food waste problem and give that 70
01:36% of edible food to different
01:38charities that can work with households, it will solve part of the issue of both sides of the equation.
01:44And is there anything that we can learn from other countries that are also dealing with this issue?
01:48Yes, it's not just Australia that's experiencing a major food waste issue. We're seeing it across the globe and it's
01:56going to be one of the key talking points at COP 31 next month in Turkey.
02:01Yeah. And so some countries that are ahead of Australia is France, for example, they've introduced laws that mean supermarkets
02:08over a certain size must donate edible food.
02:11We also see in the Netherlands, they've had this long running campaign with households to better educate them around what
02:17they can do to reduce food waste at home.
02:20So we'll have to see how Australia engages next month.
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