Food waste is no laughing matter. Consumer-created waste makes up half of all food landfill each year – that’s 5 million tonnes costing the economy $20 billion, and individual families $1000 each per year. Perhaps most staggeringly it’s consumers that are creating more excess than supermarkets, restaurants, manufacturers and farmers combined when it comes to waste.

In an effort to drastically reduce both that amount of waste and the increasing financial strains on the community, OzHarvest is introducing the Fight Food Waste campaign. Launched in conjunction with today’s World Environment Day, the campaign hopes to educate consumers on how a few simple changes can drastically reduce their output (condensed into the four steps of look, buy, store, cook).

OzHarvest founder and CEO Ronni Kahn has a goal to halve food waste by 2030, but knows that number cannot be achieved with the community’s support. “Food is so precious, wasting it makes no sense – economically, environmentally and ethically – but we all do it. From forgetting about food in the fridge, buying and cooking too much, letting it expire and not storing it properly … there are so many reasons good food ends up in the bin,” she says.

“The statistics are staggering but the solutions are simple and there is no greater force than people power. Fight Food Waste aims to tackle the problem from the bottom up by changing behaviour at home with how you look, buy, store and cook food,” she explains.

According to research conducted by OzHarvest and Southern Cross Austereo, Australians have already shown interest in being involved, with 90 percent confirming they are passionate about reducing their food waste and more than 50 percent agreeing it was a big waste of money.

Consumers can join the movement at the new OzHarvest website fightfoodwaste.org, which offers practical tips on how to prevent food waste at home. Those interested can also learn more via Kahn’s new independent documentary film release Food Fighter, in cinemas from June 7.