Maeko’s process creates usable compost within 24 hours. Image: Maeko
1 billion tonnes wasted
By providing onsite composting solutions for all kinds of businesses and homes, Maeko says its goal is to help “close the loop” of sustainability, ensuring that waste food goes back into farms and gardens as fertilizer to grow more food.
But food waste is a global problem. A new report from the United Nations has found that across the world almost 1 billion tonnes of food waste are generated a year – nearly twice the amount previously estimated.
Twenty-six percent of this comes from food service and 13% from retail, but 61% comes from households – with an average of 74 kilogrammes of food being discarded per person each year around the world. The UN says the per-capita food wasted each year is “remarkably similar” from lower-middle-income to high-income countries.