Chaser comedian Craig Reucassel has focused his new documentary War on Waste on the growing influx of waste generation in Australia.
Reucassel told News Corp Australia used to be a world-leading nation when it came to kerbside recycling, but has now fallen behind.
While politicians have to play a role in changing legislation, Reucassel said it was also up to supermarkets and consumers to create change.
The new documentary reveals up to 40 per cent of bananas are thrown away by farmers as they don’t meet standards set by supermarkets, including being too bent, straight, long or short.
“I was shocked by the waste,” Reucassel told News Corp.
“These bananas are highly edible but they don’t fit the cosmetic look. If they are too curved they are thrown out, if they are not curvy enough they are thrown out.
“It’s really hard being a banana these days.”
Reucassel said the thing that surprised him most was the sheer volume of fruit and vegetables that were simply tossed out, despite the months of work that goes into growing them.
“It’s very hard to make fruit or vegetables come out in a perfect way,” he said. “I saw a zucchini that was too big to be sold, because of one extra day’s rain, it’s crazy.
“I think it’s particularly sad when you think about how many people struggle to get food in Australia (and the world) that so much edible food is just chucked.”
Reucassel found that on average shoppers threw out the equivalent of one in five shopping bags worth of food at home, which is generally food that people buy but don’t get a chance to eat.
On the program he fills a Melbourne tram with disposable coffee cups (which generally cannot be recycled) to get people thinking about the staggering amount of rubbish that goes to landfill.
“I think a lot of people either don’t think about it or don’t know how to deal with it,” Reucassel said.
“We have a coffee culture in Australia built around takeaway coffee cups, but it’s not like that in all countries, this is a new waste stream that we are not dealing with.”