In New Zealand, around 1.2 million tonnes of food are wasted each year, and 30% of this food wastage happens at a household level (Ministry for Environment, Nov 2025)

When food is wasted, not only do we waste the food itself, but we also waste the resources used to produce and transport it (such as water, pesticides and fertilisers, and the fuel used for manufacturing and transportation). If the food waste is sent to landfill, it takes an extremely long time to decompose. Landfill is an environment without oxygen, and as microorganisms within the landfill consume organic materials, they create methane, a potent greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change. 

Reducing your food waste

The Waste Hierarchy displays the order of preference for waste management options and it can be applied to food waste. Disposal should be our very last option and avoided where possible. 

REDUCE

Avoid the generation of surplus food:

• Plan meals so you only buy what you need
• Check your fridge and pantry before shopping so you know what you already have that needs to be eaten before its expiry date
• Keep an eye on "Use By" and "Best Before" dates. 
  • "USE BY": This is the final date at which the food product is safe to eat. After this date, the food should be disposed of, even if it looks and smells fine, because it will be a potential health risk. Foods with this label include perishable items such as fresh meat, seafood and ready-to-eat salads. 
  • "BEST BEFORE": This refers to quality rather than safety. After the "best before" date, food is still generally safe to eat if it has been stored properly, although it may taste stale or have less flavour. Examples include canned food, breakfast cereals and biscuits, and dried foods such as pasta and rice. 
• Store food correctly so it remains fresh for as long as possible. For example, freeze bread to keep it fresh (slices of bread toast very well from frozen).
  • Love Food Hate Waste has a great A-Z Food Storage Guide.
  • Zero-Waste Chef provides tips for storing different food items plastic-free.
• Create an "Eat Me First" shelf in your fridge and pantry, and make this clearly visible so everybody in the household can easily identify which food needs to be used up first. 

RE-USE / RE-PURPOSE

At a household level you can:

• Share excess food with your neighbours or Pātaka Kai.
• Donate food to your local foodbank or food rescue team (there's a list of food rescue organisations at the bottom of this page). 

RECYCLE

• Compost your fruit and vegetable scraps. See our Home Composting page for more information.
• Instead of a standard compost bin in your garden you can opt to use a Bokashi bin either indoors or outdoors. You can add a much wider variety of food scraps to a Bokashi system, including meat, dairy and baked goods. The Compost Collective website has a good introduction to the Bokashi method of composting food scraps at home.
• Alternatively, use your Council food scraps bin. Processing of these food scraps varies by council, but the end goal is the same: to create a useful product from this food resource. Your council may send scraps to an anaerobic digestion facility where bacteria break down the scraps to create liquid fertiliser (and the biogas produced during this process can be used to power local industry). Some councils oversee large-scale commercial composting of their food scraps.