New Zealand families waste about $560 each year on food which is thrown uneaten into the rubbish bin. This adds up to a staggering $872 million for the whole country. It also results in 122,000 tonnes of edible food, enough to feed  forty times the population of the Whakatāne for an entire year, going to landfill and generating greenhouse gases.

We’re proud to be part of the national Love Food Hate Waste NZ campaign, which aims to turn this around by inspiring and enabling people to waste less food.

As a Council, local efforts to reduce our food waste would reduce the amount of waste we transport from Kawerau to landfill 180 km away. This would have a positive impact on rates, our carbon footprint and other associated environmental effects.

Bread, fruit and veggies, and meal leftovers are the most commonly discarded foods. The equivalent of 20 million loaves of bread is thrown into rubbish bins uneaten every year.