Food waste is a global issue that exists at all stages of production and distribution, including picking, transportation, manufacturing, retail, and at home. Food waste accounts for 8% of the total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. If food waste was a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas polluter behind the USA and China! According to FIAL, household food waste in Australia accounts for 1,271,850 tons of food waste per year, and 52% is fruit and veg! Not only is this harmful to the environment, this drives the cost of food up which wastes our hard-earned money and leaves many food insecure.
Thankfully, The Swag can help reduce household food waste, lower the threat to our food security and lessen the amount of plastic bags in landfills. We asked our fellow mathematician to grab her calculator and crunch some numbers to discover how much food and plastic waste The Swag can actually prevent!
We are proud to share The Swag’s inaugural Food Waste Prevention Report - Key Findings (2021-2022)!
Key findings from the report showed that The Swag:
- Prevented 1,346,770.44 kg of fruit and veg from entering landfill - this equates to 112,230.87 kg per month! Of this, 57,080.63 kg of food waste was saved each month with every The Swag Starter Pack purchased
- Prevented 9,370.35 kg of food waste from entering landfill each month with every The Swag Twin Pack purchased
- On average, saved 40 kg of produce with each Swag bag in 2021-2022
- Saved 334,464 plastic bags from ending up in the environment and our waterways with the replacement of our Produce Bag Set
How did we calculate and report on our impact?
We assumed that all Swags purchased in 2021-2022 were used weekly, at their maximum capacity (by weight), and added all of our sales of The Swag Starter Pack, The Swag Twin Pack, Long Swag, Large Swag, Small Swag and Bundles from January 1st 2021 to January 1st 2022. We also assumed that the 4 cotton bags of our Produce Bag Set were used weekly.
We can’t wait to save even more produce globally in 2022, thanks to you!
