D U M P S T E R D I V I N G DIVING FOR DINNER WHEN John goes out dumpster-diving at night, it’s not because he’s skint or stingy. The 22-year-old Aucklander – a straight A student hoping to make a future difference in the health industry – is philosophically opposed to New Zealand’s food wastage statistics - and says we should all collectively hang our heads in shame. “We say we have 300,000 children living in poverty in New Zealand right now,” John says bitterly, “but I can’t for the life of me understand why, when we have the complete ability to feed those kids for next to nothing. “Come out with me on a typical night, and I will show you the amount of food wastage – and I’m talking good nutritional food – we can find in rubbish bins behind factories, restaurants, shops and manufacturing plants. “Take a look at what we got last night,” he continues, sweeping his arm dramatically across a kitchen table full of food, “and tell me why people need to queue at food banks. There is absolutely no reason for our country to waste the food that it does. And it makes me angry.” One look at his haul, and it’s no wonder why. Along with fresh fruit and vegetables, the collection includes cut meats, flour, butter, pies, nacho chips, cheese, bread, jam, honey, milk and biscuits… all thrown out by local supermarkets the night before. “And that’s about an hour’s work,” John adds. “We should feel ashamed, because we are all contributing to a travesty.” About $900 million wcAh of food is wasted annually by New Zealand 18 APRIL 2016 households; that’s around $560 of food from each property. In rubbish terms, that’s more than 122,540 tonnes of food annually, or around 80kg of edible food per household. About enough to feed 262,900 people… enough, says John, to feed nearly each and every one of those children in poverty. “Something has to change in this country,” he says. “What we are doing is wrong. And it’s not just the general public, but food manufacturers, developers, importers and suppliers who need to take a long hard look at themselves. We are all guilty, but we all have a tiny piece of the answer. We just have to change.” THE issue of food wastage is not new, but in the spotlight after France brought in a new law stopping supermarkets destroying unsold food. Instead, chains have to donate old food to charities or find a use for it somewhere else. WasteMINZ, a waste and recycling industry body in New Zealand, says that would be difficult to introduce into this country, particularly as it’s a problem they claim is mainly originating in New Zealand household kitchens. But avoiding food wastage would take the equivalent of 118,000 cars off the road annually. Tell that to Nelson teen Reece Gibbs, who was charged with theft after police found him with seven discarded meat pies from a petrol station dumpster. The 17-year-old, who the police alleged stole $21 of pies from a bin, had the charges later thrown out. “It’s stuff that people don’t want. It’s in the bin, that’s where you put stuff you don’t want,” an incredulous Gibbs said at the time. An Auckland academic agrees. Associate Professor Karen Fernandez from the University of Auckland Business School says whilst pilfering from dumpsters outside restaurants and supermarkets is technically trespassing and stealing, at the end of the day it’s a tragedy that edible food is going to waste. “Dumpster divers complain that super- The 17-year-old, who the police alleged stole $21 of pies from a bin, had the charges later thrown out. “It’s stuff that people don’t want. It’s in the bin, that’s where you put stuff you don’t want,”
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