{"id":148103,"date":"2019-10-20T21:51:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-20T19:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/world-food-day-drawing-the-line-on-food-waste-right-here-right-now-is-a-critical-priority\/"},"modified":"2019-10-20T21:51:48","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T19:51:48","slug":"world-food-day-drawing-the-line-on-food-waste-right-here-right-now-is-a-critical-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/world-food-day-drawing-the-line-on-food-waste-right-here-right-now-is-a-critical-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"World Food Day: Drawing the line on food waste \u2013 right here, right now \u2013 is a critical priority"},"content":{"rendered":"

MyPR<\/a>: World Food Day: Drawing the line on food waste \u2013 right here, right now \u2013 is a critical priority<\/a>:<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>16 October 2019 \u2013 There is a strong movement towards the immediacy of reducing the effects of climate change as so adequately echoed in young Greta Thunberg\u2019s recent UN speech, underpinned by the sentiment \u2013 Right Here. Right Now \u2013 and as she tackles issues of magnitude in this regard \u2013 the question has to be asked, what role does food waste play in the plight against climate change?<\/p>\n

This World Food Day, Interwaste takes a closer look at not only the impact of food waste, but the solutions that should be considered to change this.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearch shows that each ton of food equates to almost 4.14 tCO2e and that 4.3% of South Africa\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions are from the disposal of organic waste. This indicates not only a high emissions rate, but also provides grounds to argue that food waste is an important contributor to climate change \u2013 a contributor that can, and should, be avoided,\u201d says Jason McNeil, CEO at Interwaste.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s worse is that, in a country that is already water scarce, the very food that is being wasted is using up 22% of the country\u2019s water supply through the agricultural process \u2013 a significant impact on the larger climate change discussion. As such, there is no doubt that food waste needs to be stopped \u2013 not only to curb hunger but as importantly, to make sure that the water used to grow it \u2013 is not used in vain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFood waste is a major climate issue, but it is more than that \u2013 it is an economic, sustainability and \u2013 most importantly, a socio-economic issue. Statistics show that 27% of available food in sub-Saharan Africa is wasted, resulting mostly from production and retail, and that edible food waste through the value chain in South Africa is costing the country R61.5 billion per annum, and 2.1% of National GDP.
In a country that is already economically and socio-economically challenged, we have to ask ourselves \u2013 can we afford to waste food and similarly, as a global player, what are we doing to aid the global climate?\u201d adds McNeil.<\/p>\n

The answer lies in effective waste management of food waste. Corporate South Africa has a fundamental role to play in reducing the food waste numbers. Minimising wastage and overproduction remain critical but more so, finding ways to reduce and repurpose food waste that is safe and makes financial sense can really create opportunity in other economic areas too. In fact, there is a profound, positive ripple effect and impact of sound food waste management on the country. It provides the opportunity to not only recover foods for redistribution to those in need but also to repurpose food waste through composting, anaerobic digestion and bioremediation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of energy wasted each year in South Africa producing food that is not consumed, equates to the amount of power required by the City of Johannesburg for roughly 16 weeks,\u201d says McNeil. \u201cConsidering the numbers, there is no doubt that innovative solutions such as anaerobic digestion \u2013 that extracts energy from composting food waste and creates a source of power \u2013 is a very viable solution to repurposing food waste for socio-economic gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, if companies themselves are not examining ways in which to set a benchmark for deriving better and more sustainable waste management solutions \u2013 solutions that focus beyond the landfill model \u2013 alternatives will not make the impact that is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing a serious shift in this space \u2013 with many companies taking a proactive and committed stance to both reducing and repurposing their food waste. After all, there is much more than just a commercial value for corporate South Africa\u2013 there is a socio-economic obligation, ensuring we are helping feed South Africa\u2019s people, and not draining our planet\u2019s resources,\u201d continues McNeil.<\/p>\n

To this end, the South African Government has made a global commitment to halve food waste in the country by 2030. In support of this, new laws have been legislated and regulations are being rolled out, all aimed at cleaning-up South Africa and reducing the negative environmental and health impacts caused by waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we consider the aspects that make up the circular economy\u2013 a means to reduce the impact of waste on the global climate \u2013 then the effective management of food waste \u2013 through the removal of unnecessary excess materials, energy losses and related carbon emissions, allowing the food waste to be \u2018fed\u2019 back into the cycle \u2013 we enable the reutilisation of a resource to further contribute to the fight for real climate change,\u201d concludes McNeil.<\/p>\n

About Interwaste Holdings Ltd
Interwaste is a South African integrated waste management company also operating in Mozambique. With 30 years\u2019 experience, the Company posted annual revenue of more than \u20ac70 million in 2018 with a workforce of 2000 people. It provides a full range of waste-treatment services and deploys a broad network of 38 waste sorting and grouping platforms and more than 750 specialised facilities, plus various waste treatment and elimination sites. Interwaste also has a wide range of clients from the manufacturing, mining, raw materials, and energy industries, as well as the mass-market, pharmaceuticals, and retail sales segments. Today, Interwaste\u2019s ambition is to be a leader in sustainable development and environmental protection.<\/p>\n

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MyPR: World Food Day: Drawing the line on food waste \u2013 right here, right now \u2013 is a critical priority: 16 October 2019 \u2013 There is a strong movement towards the immediacy of reducing the effects of climate change as so adequately echoed in young Greta Thunberg\u2019s recent UN speech, underpinned by the sentiment \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3331],"tags":[25,1737,77,3333],"class_list":{"0":"post-148103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cape-town","7":"tag-cape-town-2","8":"tag-government","9":"tag-municipality","10":"tag-mycapetown-co-za","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}