Fast facts
Are you still not sure why you should put your food scraps in your kitchen caddy or green organics bin? Check out these fast facts to find out why it is great to turn food scraps into compost rather than sending them to landfill.
- Amazingly, about 180 kilograms of food, per person, is wasted every year. Around 40% of what is placed in waste bins is food.
- The ‘compostable’ bags placed in your kitchen caddy are made from corn starch, which will break down just like food scraps.
- The golden rule for deciding if something can go into the green organics bin is ‘if it grows, it goes’. This means that if the item or material is something that lives or grows, or comes from something that lives or grows, it can go into the green organics bin.
- When food scraps and other organic material are placed into the green organics bin, they are collected and turned into nutrient-rich compost, which can be used by gardeners to help plants grow.
- Placing food scraps into the green organics bin reduces the amount of waste we send to landfill, saving money, energy and space in landfills.
- If food scraps are placed in landfill, they break down and produce the equivalent of 15.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, as well as a greenhouse gas called methane.
- Around 90% of greenhouse gas emissions from landfills come from the breakdown of organic matter, like food scraps.
- The average Australian household throws away $1036 worth of food each year.
- As a country, Australia throws away $8 billion worth of edible food every year. That is a lot of money!