Food waste

Food waste is wasted money for households, costing the average Victorian household $2,200 per year. Food sent to landfill also wastes all the resources, including water, required to grow, harvest, transport, package and sell produce. If food is sent to landfill it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

The best way to reduce food waste is to plan your meals, shop to a list, only purchase what you need, store your food correctly and learn to love your leftovers. 

Get some tips on reducing food waste at Love Food Hate Waste. 

Some food scraps are unavoidable but can be recycled in the garden through composting, worm farming, feeding to chickens or fermenting using a Bokashi bin. 

The City of Ballarat has partnered with Compost Revolution to encourage residents to consider composting, worm farming and Bokashi fermentation as a way of reducing food waste.

Compost Revolution has information on the different types of composting systems for homes. Have a look at their website to see what’s best for your home.

A range of compost bins, worm farms and Bokashi bins are available at 40 per cent off regular retail price (plus postage).

From March 2019 to January 2022, we have had;

• 224 separate orders of products, buying 426 composting products. 
• 1,097 people have accessed the tutorials
• Compost Revolution estimate 33,102 kg of waste diverted from landfill
• An estimated 52,861kg CO2e saved

If you don’t have a garden but would still like to compost your food scraps, you can look for a local community composting site at ShareWaste. 

No, food scraps can’t be put into the green waste bin in Ballarat. Our green waste contractor is not able to process food waste. This means that any food waste in the green waste bin is considered a contamination. 

You can place your food scraps in your home compost bin or your rubbish bin.