Sustainability expert Dr Dianne McGrath shares how you can help

Most Aussie households throw away bags of grocery shopping weekly. Check out these simple steps that will help you save cash.

Dr Dianne McGrath once dreamed of walking on Mars, now she dreams of swimming in clean oceans and working for social good at home on Earth.

McGrath, 53, who was in training for the now defunct Mars One mission, which aimed to settle humans on the Red Plant, wants to save our own planet and is not afraid to put her body on the line – including spending a week living off other people’s food waste and sailing the high seas to help educate people on our need for clean water.

An expert on sustainability, McGrath is the director of Food For Thought Consulting Australia and works with Stop Food Waste Australia. She assists organisations across the globe to improve their environmental footprint. She is now preparing to sail across the globe in the Clipper 2023-24 Round the World Yacht Race for 11 months, all for climate change.

A fleet of 70ft yachts, with roughly 20 crew per yacht, will leave the UK in December and stop at every continent except Antarctica before finishing next July. Teams will be tested mentally and physically as they adapt to a host of sailing and climatic conditions.

“Our oceans are critical for our survival,” Dr McGrath says.

Dianne McGrath training for the round the world sailing trip.

“They absorb around 25 per cent of all carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, so we need healthy oceans to help combat climate change.”

Dr McGrath is also assisting the packaging industry to end the volume of plastics we tip into the ocean, with an aim to recycle all plastics in Australia by 2025.

There are currently 50-70 trillion pieces of plastics in the ocean. Sadly, 80 per cent of all marine life are estimated to have consumed it.

By 2050, plastics in the ocean will outweigh fish. But you can help.

DO YOUR BIT

Humans have manufactured more plastics in the past decade than the past century, and it’s in our food.

The average Aussie consumes about one credit card’s worth of plastic a week, according to a 2019 Australian analysis.

After living for 12 months plastic-free, Dr McGrath says it’s easy to avoid.

“We can choose to buy alternative products that aren’t plastic or don’t come in plastic packaging ... and we can bring our own containers to bulk food stores to use again,” she says.

Some Australian businesses are targeting 100 per cent recycling of plastics. More than 1500 companies are members of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation and committed to reducing the damaging impact of their packaging.

Dianne McGrath wants to see our waterways free of plastic. Picture: Maya Sugiharto

Roberta Dixon-Valk, marine ecologist and co-founder of Take 3 for the Sea, says it’s imperative we reduce plastic consumption.

“Take three pieces of rubbish with you when you leave the beach, waterway or anywhere, and you have made a difference,” she says.

FOOD WASTE

Dr McGrath says the week she spent living off other people’s discarded food in 2016 was an eye-opener to how much we waste or throw away.

“I ate the scraps left on people’s plates in cafes, restaurants or pubs,” she says. “Bread and baked goods, followed by other plant-based foods such as chips, salads and vegetables were the most common foods I saw left on plates, and consequently were the foods I ate the most.

“My Monday to Friday breakfast was scant – leftover bites of bagels and muffins, and the dregs of a usually too-sweet milky coffee in a takeaway disposable coffee cup.”

Most Australian households throw out about $50 worth of food each week.

Most Australian households throw away one in four or five bags of grocery shopping weekly. This equates to around $50 of food that goes in the bin, says Dr McGrath. But we can save that exact amount each week by taking simple steps.

“Make a meal plan for the week based on what the week looks like,” Dr McGrath says. “If you know everyone is home for 5-6 days in the week to come, plan and cook for four days of everyone eating fresh at home, plan for 1-2 days leftovers, and 1-2 days dining out. You’ll notice a difference in your shopping bills and food waste within weeks.”

THE 5 Rs

Help the planet with these five Rs, according to Dianne McGrath:

Reduce: If we avoid the aisles and shop around the outer rim of the supermarket you’ll come across more fresh food, which is not in as much plastic.

Reuse: Go to bulk food stores and buy non-fresh ingredients (cereal, dried fruit) and household staples (oils, shampoos, cleaning products) in refillable plastic-free containers.

Recycle: Most food companies and supermarkets now put icons on the packs to help us. This is the Australasian Recycling Label. It has its own website to help people with extra details on why it’s important to “check it before you chuck it”.

Return: One of the options for a lot of plastic drink bottles is to return them to container deposit locations for a refund. These can be found in most states and territories now, and you can get 10c back for every bottle you return.

Replace: Swap out some common packaged snacks with fresh, healthy alternatives. Buy fresh loose carrots, chop them up and cover them with water in a jar. Pop them in the fridge and they’ll be crunchy for a whole week.