Food Wastage in Australian Healthcare: A Sustainable Development View

This essay addresses the issue of food wastage within the Australian healthcare industry, highlighting its economic, social, and environmental impacts. It begins by outlining the scope of the problem, noting the significant financial losses and environmental burdens associated with wasted food. The essay defines sustainability in the context of healthcare, emphasizing the need to minimize environmental impact and resource wastage. It posits that current food wastage practices are unsustainable and explores potential solutions such as food recycling programs and waste reduction strategies. The essay plan includes an examination of environmental, social, and economic concerns related to food waste, considering the perspectives of various stakeholders. It emphasizes that reducing food waste can lead to environmental benefits, social improvements through resource redistribution, and economic savings. The conclusion reinforces the need for minimizing food waste, promoting reuse and recycling, and responsibly disposing of unavoidable waste to foster sustainability in the healthcare sector. The essay references various sources to support its arguments and proposed solutions.

Running head: Sustainable Development
Food Wastage in Australian Health Industry
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1Sustainable Development
Orientation
 Food wastes costs the Australian economy about $20 billion every year
 3.1 million Tonnes of edible food are wasted by Australian consumers each year.
 2.2 million tonnes of edible food wasted by commercial and industrial sectors
 The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) (environment.gov.au, 2018)
 Melbourne has been estimated to throw away $127,000 every year as food waste (or
$1.74 per person, per day) (Hospitalhealth.com.au, 2018)
SCOPE: The scope of this study is to find solutions to the problems of food wastage and
ways to minimize them
Defining Sustainability:
 Sustainable process has the following characteristics:
 Maintenance of functionality with time
 Minimal impact on the environment
 Least wastage of resources
(duhealth.org.uk, 2018; sustain.ucla.edu, 2018)
It is also defined as a form of development which can address the present needs,
without affecting the future generation's ability to address theirs (Farhud, 2017)
Thesis
 The current scenario of the wastage of food in the healthcare industry is
unsustainable, since it results in wastage of resources, increases impact on the

2Sustainable Development
environment and most importantly, also incur an economic burden which can
otherwise be reduced or avoided.
 However, there are contingencies such as Food Recycling programs and Food Waste
reduction practices (Hospitalhealth.com.au, 2018)
Essay Plan
 Thesis
 Sustainability in relation to the given scenario
 Background and overview of scenario
 Main Principles
 Stakeholders
 Sustainability concerns
 Environmental, Social and Economic Concerns
 Responsibility to attain sustainability
 Main concerns of sustainability
 Interrelation between the three pillars: environmental, social and
economic
 Stakeholder’s views and needs
Environmental Pillar
 Wasted food ends up in the landfills and garbage dumps, increasing the carbon
footprint and environmental impact

3Sustainable Development
 Recycling food which has been rendered unusable to make compost and biofertilizers
The Social Pillar
 Wastage of food surmounts of wastage of resources that could have been provided to
underprivileged groups, homeless individuals or people in poverty
 The food instead of being wasted can be reused to prepare meals at homeless shelters
The Economic Pillar
 Every food wasted also results in the loss of money.
 Avoiding wastage of food, and reusing and recycling wasted food can help to reduce
the wastage of money.
Conclusion
 Food is wasted in the healthcare industry every year
 This wasted food results in an increased expense in the Healthcare Industry
 It also increases garbage at landfills
 To maintain sustainability: Food waste must be minimised, reuse of the food in
palatable condition, using waste food as animal feed, recycling food for biofertilizers,
and only disposing the least amount of food

4Sustainable Development
References:
duhealth.org.uk. (2018). What is Sustainable Health? | Sustainable Health | Sustainable
Development Unit. Sduhealth.org.uk. Retrieved 27 April 2018, from
https://www.sduhealth.org.uk/policy-strategy/what-is-sustainable-health.aspx
environment.gov.au. (2018). Department of the Environment and Energy. Department of the
Environment and Energy. Retrieved 27 April 2018, from
http://www.environment.gov.au/protection/national-waste-policy/food-waste
Farhud, D. (2017). Life Style and Sustainable Development. PubMed Central (PMC).
Retrieved 27 April 2018, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5401917/#B2
Hospitalhealth.com.au. (2018). Coming to grips with food waste. Hospitalhealth.com.au.
Retrieved 27 April 2018, from https://www.hospitalhealth.com.au/content/aged-
allied-health/article/coming-to-grips-with-food-waste-406313953
Hospitalhealth.com.au. (2018). Coming to grips with food waste. Hospitalhealth.com.au.
Retrieved 27 April 2018, from https://www.hospitalhealth.com.au/content/aged-
allied-health/article/coming-to-grips-with-food-waste-406313953
sustain.ucla.edu. (2018). What is Sustainability? | UCLA Sustainability. UCLA
Sustainability. Retrieved 27 April 2018, from https://www.sustain.ucla.edu/about-
us/what-is-sustainability/