Issue 12 | March 2017
Waste Not Want Not
Did you know Australian households throw away more than $1000 worth of food every year?
Food waste costs the city money in waste collection services and landfill fees. It also impacts the wider environment through costs of producing and transporting food, and by generating methane in landfills. On average, kerbside bins in the Redlands contain about 23 per cent food waste that could be avoided. By engaging the community, we can drive cultural change towards reducing food wastage.
Background studies undertaken last year showed people don’t know what to do with leftovers in their fridge. Waste Not Want Not is a campaign that focuses on using leftovers and avoiding food waste. Designed to raise awareness of how much food waste ends up in kerbside bins, the campaign will help residents increase cooking self-efficacy and encourage them to think about using food already in their fridges, which will reduce household food waste.
The campaign includes telephone surveys with a group of residents and a two-week event to help residents understand how to turn what is already in the fridge into creative meals, and how leftover food can be reused. The campaign will also show how to avoid food spoilage through shopping lists, menu planning and improved food storage techniques. Using social marketing techniques to achieve behavioural change and provide an evidence base for any future city-wide rollout of food waste reduction activities.
Learn how to reuse leftovers
Featuring branded merchandise to prompt awareness (menu planning, shopping lists, shopping bag), telephone surveys, and a two-week display at Stockland Shopping Centre in Cleveland, the campaign will engage shoppers to think about food reuse through food tastings and cooking demonstrations using leftovers with celebrity chef Dominque Rizzo from 10am-1pm every day from 20-31 March, and a celebrity chef cook-off between Matthew Lee from Cutty Sark and Eugene Lee from Colour Me Flavour on Thursday 30 March.
Small samples of the Redland population will be randomly contacted to take part in a telephone interview before and after the event, which is underway from 20 March to 31 March, 2017.
About the campaign
This campaign is a collaboration between Griffith University’s Social Marketing @ Griffith and Redland City Council, with support from Stockland Shopping Centre. It is a project delivered under the Waste Reduction and Recycling Plan 2015-2020 with the overall motto to “re-think your rubbish”. This is a one-team project delivered by multiple sections of Council.
Redland City Council staff are encouraged to get involved in the campaign by visiting the display and cook-off at Stockland. Merchandise, including free shopping lists and recipes, are available from the Waste Not Want Not stand at Stockland Cleveland Shopping Centre.
