Date: 18-Jun-12
Author: Ryan Collins

It doesn't matter whether you're a farm, a manufacturing centre, a distribution hub, a café, a restaurant or a catering firm, there are options available that will allow you to donate your surplus food to people who need it most in your local community.

Many businesses in NSW are needlessly throwing away edible food because they think they are not allowed to donate it to those in need. In fact waste audits show that NSW businesses throw away an estimated 400,000 tonnes of food waste every year. The National Waste Report estimates that 21.5% of business waste is food.

The new Food Donation Tool Kit provides information about how to donate food and helps businesses identify which charity is most appropriate for your organisation to give to.

The benefits to your business from food donation include:

• saving on your waste disposal costs
• providing food directly to people in need
• impacting positively on staff morale
• reducing the volume of food in landfill
• helping you to achieve your business's environmental targets.

If food is not suitable to be donated to a charity like OzHarvest, Foodbank, and SecondBite, then options such as commercial composting are the next best way to ensure that your food waste stays out of landfill. You can find your nearest food charity on BusinessRecycling.com.au.

A free Food Donation Tool Kit is available for download here.

For more information please visit the Love Food Hate Waste website.