The FareShare facility in Morningside is making strides and seizing the opportunity to divert food wastes away from the landfill, which is an important objective of the newly-launched Queensland Organics Strategy and Action Plan.
Following extensive consultations in the past year, the Queensland Government has unveiled the 10-year plan to encourage Queenslanders to improve their food consumption habits and turn discarded organic material into a “valuable and useful commodity.”
The launch took place at the FareShare site along 46 Steel Place in Morningside in February 2022.
“The Strategy and Action Plan is the result of an extensive consultation process over the past year which included a survey, written submissions, workshops and information sessions,” Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said.
“We waste too much food, leaving it to be dumped in landfill, while others go hungry.
“This is not only having an increasing cost on our household budgets – estimated at $2,200 a year – but on our environment as unwanted food and garden waste dumped in landfill produces damaging methane gas.
“By 2030, we want to halve the amount of food waste generated, divert 80 per cent of the organic material going to landfill, and achieve a 70 per cent recycling rate for organics.”
Ms Scanlon has also cited FareShare’s success in reducing waste as it turns food supply excesses into free, nutritious meals for those in need.
With the help of a $160,000 food rescue grant, FareShare has secured a storage and rescue capacity by constructing a second cool room, completing the purchase of a forklift, and hiring extra workers.
Meanwhile, measures under the Queensland Organics Strategy and Action Plan will include the following:
- 2.1 billion waste package over the next ten years which includes the $1.1 billion Recycling and Jobs Fund to support increased household recycling, help build new resource recovery infrastructure and create more jobs in more industries.
- Nearly $1 million in Food Rescue grants for Fareshare, Foodbank, SecondBite, IFYS Urban Angels Community Kitchen, Ozharvest and The Rock Family and Community Support to divert surplus food away from landfill and help Queenslanders experiencing food insecurity.
- $770,000 to support Food Organics, Garden Organics (FOGO) Kerbside Collection Trials in Townsville, Rockhampton, and Lockyer Valley.
- Nearly $500,000 Organics Waste Smart Schools Program to help state schools improve the management of food waste in the schoolyard.
- $11 million in grants committed through the Food Waste for Healthy Soils Program to support new and improved organic waste recycling infrastructure.
