From The Desk of Mark Goldberg

Hi Everyone,

It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to share some thoughts about Food Dumping, and both the Financial and Ethical Impacts on Australia. However, after a long COVID realignment of our core business of Food Clearance, I’m appalled at the amount of Australian Food Manufacturers and Importers who still choose to DUMP and WASTE food and drink products, over the ethical and sustainable outcome, the Discount Clearance Route.

Firstly, Unpacking Some Facts.

• Food waste costs the economy around $36.6 billion each year.
• Each year we waste around 7.6 million tonnes of food across the supply and consumption chain – this wastage equals about 312kg per person, equivalent to around one in five bags of groceries or $2,000 to $2,500 per household per year.
• Food waste accounts for approximately 3% of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
• Australia uses around 2600 gigalitres of water to grow food that is wasted – this equates to the volume of water in five Sydney Harbours!

The amount of land used to grow wasted food covers in excess of 25 million hectares, a landmass larger than the state of Victoria.

• The Australian water crisis can be addressed in many ways, ranging from increasing water conservation behaviours, to minimizing demand. Due to the extended drought experienced in many locations across Australia in recent years, water conservation can still play a major and vital role in reducing demand for water. Water usage being a major input into Food and Drinks Manufacturing, should be an ethical consideration when deciding to DUMP.

Greenhouse gas

What happens to food when it is Dumped into a landfill is quite shocking. A lack of oxygen in landfills impedes organic materials from biodegrading. There’s no oxygen in a landfill, so organic matter like paper, wood, and food scraps are stuck in a limbo state, releasing methane. That Methane then creates Greenhouse Gas Emissions which contributes considerably to climate change.

Landfills contribute almost 15% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Australia each year..

These emissions contribute to a heavy financial cost to the Economy and Business in general.

Apart from the financial and ecological costs, Food Dumping into landfill breaks down at a very slow rate and remains a problem for future generations.

Therefore, I wish to remind my colleagues and Clients in the Food Manufacturing and Distribution Business, that we have a Duty to ourselves and future generations NOT TO DUMP good Food and Drink products.

Please take note of the facts I have presented to you in this blog, the argument for disposing of your stock through Discount Distribution should always be your No.1 option.

We as a Business Community who have a direct involvement where our excess and short coded stock ends up, have to carefully consider the ethical, moral, and sustainable repercussions of our decisions, before we decide to DUMP and WASTE Food or Drink products.