Episode 1

S1, E1: In Episode One, presenter Craig Reucassel kicks off the War on Waste by tackling the issue of food waste. Australians wasted 3.3 million tonnes of food in 2014 - 2015. To give the audience a national recognisable measurement reference Craig stands in the middle of the MCG and makes the point that our food waste would fill the MCG 6 times over! So where does the food waste problem begin? On average, Australian households are throwing out a fifth of all food that they buy. To show exactly what that amount of food looks like Craig fills a truck with almost a tonne of food and drives it into the middle of a shopping centre car park. Not only that, he decides to dive some shoppers’ trolleys and grabs a fifth of what they’ve just purchased. Surprisingly, people aren’t too happy to give up their groceries. But most are shocked to learn that the truck represents a year’s worth of food wasted per household. To see if we can all make a difference, Craig sets a challenge for a neighbourhood of ten Sydney families to live as “waste free” as they possibly can. Their task over the next month is to try to reduce their household waste. He’ll be there to help them but first he wants to see what they waste, so he borrows their garbage bins and sorts through the contents – it’s a messy, stinky job! When confronted with their waste the families realise they have to start to make changes – first job is to install compost to tackle their food waste. But the whole rubbish sorting experience raises some questions about recycling that motivates Craig to investigate further. One of the major supermarkets finally agrees to an interview with Craig to address food waste and the meeting reveals that there’s more to do on their “zero food waste to landfill” target.